Chakuth Zhetey
by Animaeus
Summary: Rated T to be safe... Chakuth Zhetey is a young Spec. Op. Grunt. he is one of the Covenant's best Grunts around. Along with his friends he tries his best for the Prophets, untill strange things start to happen within the Mighty Covenant.
1. The Different Unggoy

_Fear the great disclaimer message!!! This is the disclaimer message!! No seriously :P ugh, well here goes: I do NOT own Halo, or ANY of the Covenant Race names. Neither do I own Master Chief… but please, tell me if you find a shop where they sell him X3… _

_All character names are mine. _

_That's it, have fun._

**Chapter I – The Different Unggoy**

Chakuth wandered the dark purple halls of the High Charity. His nerves raced though his small body, maybe seeking audience with the Prophets at this time wasn't such a good idea. The Jiralhanae in front of the gate gave him the creeps and he wasn't so sure about entering a room filled with holy icons to his faith.

The two giant ape-like monsters suddenly hit the end of their staffs on the ground repetitively and the doors to the room opened. The young Unggoy stared into the room, as the vision of the beautiful outskirts of space came into his view. 'It's beautiful', he thought as his attention was drawn away from the group of Sangheili came by him. They all bore the mark of shame on their chest, heads hung down and chained to each other.

Chakuth didn't notice until he felt several eyes upon him, he blinked a few times and stared at the heretic Sangheili as they were taken away by Jiralhanae guards. He suddenly heard a voice, "Zhetey, make your entrance, the prophets are waiting for you.", the voice was dark and threatening. The Unggoy nodded and ran towards the room as he slowed down before the guards, stared at them for a bit then ran past them, it didn't feel the same…

The Prophet of Truth turned around in his throne, and stared down at the young alien soldier. "You must be Chakuth Zhetey…", he said as he eyed him from his head to his feet.

Chakuth nodded and sat down on his knees, "My great prophets, I have some questions for you and the council…", he started, his high pitched voice echoing through the room, "As the speaker of my kind I am wondering why we haven't been given access to the newer Needler models, the ones we use now are old and sometimes jam up causing painful wound and sometimes casualties…", he added to it as he looked up to the supreme being before him.

"Furthermore I would like to have permission to take my team down to the ring and defend it for the sake of the covenant…".

The prophets stared at each other in slight confusion, never had they heard such brave and daring words from and Unggoy. Most of them simply did what they were told or ran away when the heat was to much for them to handle, they were funny little creatures without much intelligence. But he seemed different…

"Zhetey, I am surprised by your brave deed, by coming to me to ask permission for such small things, you are the first Unggoy ever to do such a thing. Not even your father was like you.", Truth said as he raised his head from Chakuth to the council behind the Unggoy. "I say we grant you the newer Needler models, yet we are not sending you down yet, there are enough troops down on the sacred ring, your assistance is not yet needed.", he added to it and turned away from him.

Chakuth was about to speak more, but decided against it, thinking it might anger the Prophet and the council. Instead he bowed his head, rose and walked out of the room, ignoring all the looks he received from the council's members and the Jiralhanae guarding them. Once outside he sighed, rubbed his hands together and bowed his head down a bit. The sudden laughter startled him, his friend Miph ran from behind a crate towards him. Wrapped his arms around him and squeezed.

"Hey, Hey, how'd it go??" , he asked cheerfully.

"I don't know… It seems they simply don't care much that we're just sitting here, doing nothing… while we're the best Unggoy team there is…", he said as he sighed and sat down on a crate.

"Did you get the needlers for us?", Miph asked.

Chakuth nodded and softly kicked his legs against the crate. "Yeah, they did say I was brave for coming to them myself and ask it personally… I guess usually the Sangheili do these kinds of things for us… Or just don't do it at all…", he said as he jumped off the crate and grabbed his friend's hand. "Well let's just not think about it too much, we're gonna be stuck here for a while, let's get used to it…", he said as he dragged his friend along with him.

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Duthaz eyed the Jiralhanae as he got pushed into the cell with 5 other Sangheili. The screaming of the Kig-yar a few cells away annoyed him more then anything, he felt terrible, what did he do to end up in a stinking prison cell with 4 of his best soldiers. He growled loudly as he clutched his long fingers around the prison bars and watched the two guards laugh and walk away.

A younger Sangheili walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Sir, I'm sorry for my incompetence… I should have supported you better then I did…", he spoke softly as more suddenly apologized to the former commander. He stared at his soldiers and sighed, knowing they were done for, never seeing the light of another day, or feel the thrill of battle. He felt betrayed…

"I don't belong here…", he said as he softly placed his head against the bars and closed his eyes, "Unggoy belong here, Unggoy and Kig-yar, they're useless anyway…", he sighed and sat down.

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Chakuth pulled his breathing mask off and scratched his head. The freezing air of the methane in the room was a lot better then the ones in the tanks.

Miph did the same and grinned at his friend, "Well, are you thirsty?", he asked.

The young Unggoy shrugged, "I don't know let's just sit down somewhere we'll see afterwards.", he said as he held his oxygen mask under his arm and walked towards a small table.

The room was filled with Unggoy, soldiers and rookies, even Unggoy who weren't employed at all. It was the only place they could be without being laughed at or treated like minors. Miph waved at a pair of Unggoy heading their way, "Look Chakuth, it's Vemeth and Calith, can't believe they're still alive!", he said as he pointed at two Unggoy in red armour.

Chakuth turned his head towards the two Unggoy Majors and smiled faintly, "Hey you two, can't believe you're actually still alive.", he said as he patted Calith's shoulder pads. The older Unggoy smiled at him and grabbed his hand, "It's good to see you Chakuth, how did your audience with the Prophets go?", he asked.

The young Unggoy frowned, "You know about it? How?", he asked as his eyes shifted from Miph back to Calith.

"Are you crazy? Every Unggoy knows that you went to speak for us! You're like a national hero or something!", Calith said as he placed his hands in his side. Chakuth's stare moved back to the table, "I see… Never thought it'd have that much of an impact on them…", he said as his expression went blank.

The sudden tugging to his back made him look back, an infant Unggoy waved with a hose at him, "Sir, do you want a Methane-refill? It's fresh and pure!", he said as he pulled the hose closer. Chakuth nodded and turned back to Calith and Vemeth, "So did the rest of your division make it?", he asked as he heard the hissing of the Methane in his tank.

Vemeth shook his head, "We're the only ones to make it back, they all died out there…", he said and stared at the ground.Calith stared at his friend and sighed, "Yeah… They were good warriors, I'll miss them…", he added to it. Chakuth nodded slightly, "The demon did it?", he asked suddenly.

Vemeth stared at him, a deep stare, "He was there too…", he said as he showed a deep bullet-wound on his arm. The Spec. Op. stared at it, "Shouldn't you let this get treated?!", he asked bewildered as he grabbed his friend's arm and stared at it closely. Vemeth nodded, "Actually I just came back from the infirmary, they said these kinds of wounds need to heal by themselves, I'm glad it wasn't a plasma burn… those are more painful…".

Chakuth nodded slightly and stared at the small windows in the walls, at times it seemed hard to remind himself that he was actually living on an interstellar ship, and those walls he stared at were part of the thick hull the ship had, sometimes it scared him… Calith poked Vemeth softly, whispering, "He's so distant all the time, like he's drifting in his mind all the time. It's peculiar how he stands out above all Unggoy…".

The young Spec. Op. Unggoy rose from the table and placed a paper on the table for the Methane refill. "I'm going to the dorms…", he said as he stared at his three friends, waved a little and walked away, leaving the others puzzled by his mysterious behaviour. "Now I really wonder what's going through his head…", Miph suddenly said, "Well… anyone up for going to the food nipple?", he said as he rose from the table and grinned at the two other Unggoy Majors. Both nodded and walked towards the dispensers.

Chakuth felt his stomach turn as he passed by many Unggoy fighting over nothing, proving themselves idiots. He knew if the Sangheili were not so busy with fighting against the Jiralhanae, they'd kick them in the behinds and tell them to behave like soldiers. He missed the old times, he missed his job too, but he missed his home world most. Unlike most Unggoy his age he wasn't born on a ship, but actually transferred from his planet and selected personally by the council that provided the Covenant with Unggoy.

It gave him a horrible feeling, knowing he might never return to his own planet, but instead he was to rot away at the command of the Prophets who never sent him out. As he slightly closed his eyes and ran into the Unggoy dormitories he immediately ran to his small room. It could fit just about 3 more Unggoy in environment suits, then it'd be full. Even his high rank couldn't afford him a better room…

As he closed the door and sealed it he tapped on a small holo-pad on the wall, filling the room with precious methane. After the room had been completely filled he pulled off his breathing equipment and inhaled the methane in his room, staring out of the circle shaped window.

"_I miss you…"_, he whispered to no-one in particular as he placed his hand on the thick transparent material and finally laid his head to rest against it and closed his eyes…

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Duthaz growled, his hands around the neck of a squealing Kig-Yar, "You filthy beast, I demand you, give that back!", he shouted in it's face as he pointed at the disgusting looking piece of food. The smaller alien made a gurgling sound and finally went limp as it's lifeless body sprained over the ground, letting the piece of green nutrient fall. The former commander narrowed his eyes and picked it up, ignoring the stares he received from numerous Kig-Yar and other, in his eyes, low-class races.

As he sat down next to his fellow prisoners he stared at them one by one, "What…?!", he asked as he placed his hands on the table. No response, they were distant and their leader wasn't their leader anymore. Duthaz narrowed his eyes and stared at the food he bothered to steal back from the small Kig-Yar, it didn't look all that good anymore. And his former team mates slipped from his hands, he felt horrid.

After the short meal they were called back to their cells, but the Sangheili commander did not move, he felt there was no reason to move for someone else's calls. Not when you ever had the rank of Commander. A large Jiralhanae walked towards Duthaz and hit him in the head with the hard metal club he carried around.

"Get up, go back to your cell, filthy mongrel.", his deep roaring voice spoke as he stared at the Sangheili forcefully clasping his head.

"Oh… did I hurt you? Here's some more for you, Off to your cell you're going!", the simian alien shouted and forcefully grabbed him by his neck, throwing him over.

Duthaz growled softly and rose from the ground slowly, his pupils narrowed as he stared at the obnoxious creature towering over him. His orange eyes primed into the Jiralhanae's black ones, "You…you'll be hearing from me…", he grunted in a deep voice as he turned around and walked to the prison blocks slowly.

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There was a call, a high pitched beeping noise awoke the young Unggoy. He found himself in a strange position on the ground under the window. As he opened his eyes he felt the light of a bright sun burn through his pupils. The human home world looked scorched, explosions filled the atmosphere everywhere and it had been that way for a few days already. Chakuth looked around for his breathing equipment and lifted the Methane tank onto his small body, placing the mask over his head. The beep meant staff meeting, and not just any, it meant he was called by the council personally. What for he didn't understand, he wasn't going to be sent out for a while, then why did they suddenly beep for him personally.

As he drained the methane from his small room he opened the doors and ran out. Along with some other high ranked Unggoy Spec. Ops. he entered the council room . The prophets were in a discussion, the council was restless and it seemed something big was going on if they had beeped him and the highest ranking Spec. Op. Unggoy here. He stared about, he knew a few of them, most were covered in deep scars, some not even healed completely. All the chaotic speaking, arguing and discussing made him uneasy, then to think that he was called personally…

Suddenly there was an uncomfortable silence, Truth hovered forward, "Unggoy leaders, we have some disturbing news for you. The demon has been sighted on earth, we do not know how this has come to be. But your tasks are to eliminate him along with your assigned Jiralhanae Commanders, I have several capable Jiralhanae willing to take one of you, while you select a team of the best Unggoy you can think off. It is a great honour to be selected for this task Unggoy, You must know that being able to kill the demon himself must be a great deal.", he spoke thoughtfully. The Unggoy Commanders stared at each other in confusion, Chakuth just stared at the planet behind the window.

"Dismissed.", it suddenly sounded, as they were guided away by Jiralhanae guards.

"Zhetey…", it suddenly sounded from Truth as he turned around and faced the Earth while the council emptied itself, "Do you see this planet? It's filled with them, those pesky little devils… Your mission is simple, I'm granting you your own team, you will lead them. You can see it as a test to see how good you Unggoy can really be.", he said.

Chakuth stared at him, "Sir?", he asked silently.

Truth turned around and eyed him, "The demon is planning to take me out, I know it… But it is your specific task to kill him before he does so.".

The Unggoy frowned, "But didn't you just send the others away for the same purpose?". The prophet stared outside again and placed a hand on the window, "They won't make it. The Jiralhanae I sent with them are not qualified commanders, I want you to do it Chakuth, because you have so much more potential then any other Unggoy I have ever seen. You must take him out as he boards this ship."

Chakuth felt strange by having just heard that, 'Did he just send the best Unggoy commanders on a suicide mission…?', he thought as he stared at the luminescent floor. The prophet noticed, "Is there something wrong?", he asked suddenly.

The Unggoy's eyes shifted towards Truth, "Not at all…", Chakuth said as he forced a pitiful smile underneath his mask, knowing that he didn't see it anyway.

"Good.", the Prophet of Truth replied, "Well you are now to select your team Zhetey, and pick carefully, there is not to be shifted with other soldiers later.", he said as he signalled his hand towards the Unggoy to leave the room.

Chakuth nodded slightly and stared at the Jiralhanae that suddenly stood next to him, signalling him away. The Unggoy walked, ignoring the huge beast next to him escorting him out. The Sangheili were so much better in what the Jiralhanae did, but he hadn't seen any of them on duty anymore.

It puzzled him, as soon as the giant alien walked back into the council room and had shut the huge doors behind him with a slam, he felt cold. Usually he'd never think of something cold to be necessarily bad, but this cold did feel bad.

As he sighed and walked towards the Unggoy dormitories he felt the bad feeling get colder, 'The best of the best commanders, sent out on a suicide mission just to…'

He stopped. 'Just to what…?', he thought as he narrowed his eyes and stared at the reflective ground.

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_Hope this was any good Oo; I feel this weird thing about it. Well be sure to tell me if you liked it or if it sucked (: thanks. Hope to post Chapter 2 soon._


	2. Demon Hunters

_Author's note: I have the char descriptions pretty much finished and ready to post. If anyone had an interest in those, tell me, I'll add them to the next Chapter :). Disclaimer: Me no own-ey Halo. Just the characters… rofl XD_

_A special thanks to the people reviewing, yay! you keep me writing, awesome :D_

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**Chapter II – Demon Hunters**

Miph frowned, he felt pokes of other Unggoy in his back, he fought the urge to laugh. The Unggoy behind him giggled and closed the methane tap to his mask and tapped his shoulder pads. "Gotcha!", he screamed as he laughed, and poked the Unggoy next to him, following him in his joke. The Unggoy major turned around and angrily slammed his thick arms on both of the culprits shoulder pads to knock him down.

Another major shook his head and opened Miph's tank tap again, "You losers, stand at attention!". Miph gave a crisp stare at the older Major and then turned his back to the whispering Minors behind him. The doors opened, Chakuth in his black polished customized armour stepped in, his eyes looked hazed and shallow, the usual shine was off and they looked sad.

He saluted at his fellow Unggoy and listened to their short attention cry. He nodded slightly and exhaled, "Alright my friends, I am here to pick a team for my mission assigned to me by his holiness The Prophet of Truth himself.", he started and watched how they reacted.

"I am to select a team of 4 other Unggoy, 2 Lekgolo, and 1 Sangheili", he continued and noticed Miph standing in the second row, he smiled underneath his mask and shook his head slightly. Then suddenly noticed how restless the Unggoy had gotten, they were talking to each other, whispering, some even arguing. Was it that unusual of a team?, it entered his mind several times before he shook it off.

"Alright, will the following Unggoy step forwards?", Chakuth said and held up a list.

"Fothigh, Miph. Ghanek, Calith. Zenuhk, Vemeth. Xanadh, Denakh.", he said and stared at the four Unggoy walking forward. Miph was giggling, Calith and Vemeth talking about nothing and Denakh was trembling. They didn't look much like a solid team but Chakuth trusted them more then anyone.

"Ok, the four of you please proceed to the armoury, you will be granted new armour for this mission. The rest of you are dismissed.", The young Unggoy said as he saluted to them and followed his friends. Miph slowed down until he found himself walking next to Chakuth, "I'm glad you chose me again Chakuth, I'm sure we'll fight off the demon and win!", he said as he held his hand up.

Chakuth smiled faintly under his mask, "Yeah I have faith in this team, we're the best…", even though he wanted it to sound convincing it didn't but Miph was to sure of himself and the team to notice that Chakuth's mood wasn't a good one. Calith and Vemeth suddenly pushed Denakh forwards, the young Unggoy tripped and fell face-first down on the cold metal floor.

Miph and Chakuth stared at each other, then at what had just happened, "Was that really necessary?", Chakuth asked and sighed. Calith frowned and helped the shaking Unggoy off the floor, "Well he needs to lighten up!", he said roughly rubbing his scaled hand over Denakh's head.

Denakh stared at the two and swallowed, "It's my first mission.. I'm sorry…", he said with a trembling voice.

Chakuth stared at him, frowning, "You're kidding me right…?", he asked as he put his hands in his side. The younger Unggoy closed his eyes and sighed, "I'm serious… My father was the one who gave me up, I don't know why I never got an orange armour… I'm sorry you guys…".

The Spec. Op. stared at his friends and shrugged, "Well… We're taking you along nonetheless you might be a good scout, scared soldiers run the fastest." He said as he walked on. Denakh stared at the ground and waited till they passed him until he started walking again.

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Duthaz heard screaming, the Kig-Yar were restless and it didn't make him feel any better. He turned around on the ground, the cold ground. He was alone in his prison cell, his anger spurt in the mess hall hadn't exactly spoken any good for him, and because of it they had his former followers removed from his prison.

It never came to his mind how cold and lonely it would get when you are left alone in a prison cell without anyone to stare at, or to even talk too. The Sangheili rose from the ground and walked towards the prison bars, he was positive he heard some noises from the end of the hallway.

The door slammed open and two Jiralhanae walked in, accompanied by a black armoured Unggoy. He narrowed his eyes and revealed his sharp teeth, there was nothing more he hated then Unggoy, Unggoy and Kig-Yar. He overheard them talking as he sat down again, it didn't interest him much for the time being. After not to long the Unggoy stood at his bars, staring at him with a look he'd never expect to get from a minor race.

"What are you staring at, filthy Unggoy…", he said in his deep voice.

The Jiralhanae whispered something towards the Unggoy, it made him uneasy. It took him a while to see that the armour of the Spec. Op. was not just black, it had gold coloured edges on the pads, indicating a very high rank or a rich family. He knew all to well there weren't much high ranking Unggoy, and the reason to that seemed perfectly obvious too. They simply weren't smart enough to outrank his race.

Then suddenly, the Unggoy talked to him, "'Kinomanee, I've chosen you for my special operations team, to personally take out the demon of legend.", he started. The Sangheili burst out in laughter, "Never have I heard such a low class race with such a big mouth, it's hilarious at it's least. But seriously, do you really believe that I would accompany an Unggoy, while it should be you… accompanying me?", he said as he fixated his orange eyes on Chakuth's dark eyes.

Chakuth stepped forward into more light, his ranking on his right chest showed immediately, "I'm not giving you a choice, as a matter of fact, you don't _have_ a choice.", his voice was cold, not the usual funny Unggoy voice that they were known for. Duthaz narrowed his eyes at him, "You can't command me around, you have no rights above me, you gas-breathing lowlife!", he bloated out as he rose and reached out to grab the Unggoy's head and pull him against the bars. Instead the unusual creature stepped backwards and aimed his personal plasma pistol, charged and ready, at his head.

"_Don't_, I strongly believe that is a bad idea…", he said as his eyes flickered to life.

Duthaz stood amazed, that an Unggoy would dare to point a plasma weapon at a Sangheili and not being afraid to fire at point blanc distance. The Jiralhanae laughed at him, "Just give up Kinomanee, this kid is taking you into his team, whether you like that or not, orders from the Prophet." The Sangheili watched with awe as the plasma gun disappeared behind the small back of the alien.

One of the two giant guards signalled to the end of the hallway and the other stood at attention as the cell doors opened. As they were fully opened he immediately grabbed Duthaz' hands and chained them, "There, you'll be cooperating from now on.", he said as he walked away with him.

Chakuth stood at the cellblock for a little while, thinking what the Sangheili might have against his race. It never stopped puzzling him, but it never stayed in his mind for long either…  
As he noticed the doors slowly closing he ran towards them and out of the prison bay, off to the Lekgolo quarters.

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The mighty Lekgolo stared at the unusual group of black armoured Unggoy and a black armoured Sangheili, who distantly followed them. They laughed and mocked them in their native language, for some reason the other Covenant races never understood a word they were saying, but that is not what they joined for. The Lekgolo knew that themselves, they were taken into the Covenant to just fight, not talk. They were the living tanks and that was all they were used for.

Chakuth stared into a huge group of them, it made him feel uneasy. The Lekgolo looked the most fearsome of all the Covenant and to have over a thousand of them facing him didn't make the situation any easier.

He inhaled the precious methane in from his tank and exhaled again, "Very well, I have come here to take a pair of Lekgolo on my team to kill the demon. He is rumoured to be on the ship as we speak, The Prophet of Truth believes that he has somehow gotten on board when we left the second ring.", as he spoke it suddenly became silent, the untranslatable language faded away and the mighty aliens stared at each other showing signs of confusion. The young Unggoy thought about what he just said, and it felt strange to have the attention of so many much more powerful beings then he was himself.

"Can Xehn and Kahlanx please step forward…?", he said trying not to lose his cool.

Two massive Lekgolo stepped forward, staring at each other and then at the small alien in front of them.

"Is this guy for real…?", Kahlanx started in their language. The older Lekgolo stared at his brother for a while, shook his head slightly and signalled at the rank on Chakuth's chest, "He is for real…", he answered in his heavy voice.

The Unggoy stared at them, they spoke so odd, he couldn't make anything out of it, he nodded and showed them the way. Now he felt smaller then ever, the massive creatures behind him almost made the ground underneath him shudder as their massive boots hit the metal.

Miph stared at the two Lekgolo brothers as they passed by, their massive bodies impressing the other Unggoy of Chakuth's team as well, the only one not to care much about it was Duthaz, he was to busy with tugging on his armour.

As soon as they had left the quarters of the Lekgolo they were brought to the armoury for new sets of armours. Chakuth watched them go as Miph suddenly poked him in the side.

"Oh man… did you see the look on the big one's face?", he started and stared at them entering the door.

Chakuth frowned and stared at him, "What… face?", he said as he frowned slightly, "I've always found it very hard to determine where their face really is…". He said dryly as he sat down on the ground and watched the doors closing.

The Sangheili stared at the young Unggoy group, he still found it unbelievable that he was outranked by a lousy Unggoy, there couldn't have been a more humiliating mission.Themomentthe two Lekgolo brothers stepped out of the doors in new black with golden armour, Chakuth smiled. He had his own team now, his own mission and most importantly, his own pride to restore by showing how strong Unggoy can be.

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_Hope you likey :) Thanks for reviewing, positive and good constructed criticism is always appreciated :D_


	3. Lekgolo Pride

_Note du author: Yay!! thanks for the replies and such, you people rule. have fun with the next chappeh!  
Disclamer: Halo not mine, Halo is Bungie's, those lucky bastards haha!_

**Chapter III – Lekgolo pride.**

"Have you heard…?", an Unggoy minor silently spoke to his friend as he sat behind a table. The other stared at him for a while, then replied, "Uhm, heard what?", he said as he leaned back a bit.

"There are rumours going around the ship, that the human demon has boarded this vessel, do you believe it?", the minor asked. The older Unggoy leaned forward hanging over the table a bit, "Who told you that?", he whispered as more Unggoy around them talked about the various rumours.

The minor leaned closer and whispered a few things to his friend, "They say that the prophet of Truth has sent our leaders into battle against the demon on earth, but has left that Young Spec. Ops. commander on the ship. And there are stories about him killing a lot of the humans. Why would they leave him on the ship?", he started.

The older frowned, "You're serious?", he asked.

"Very serious, many Unggoy are talking about it! They say that they have left this Chakuth on the ship because he has the best chances against the demon, but wouldn't that mean that the demon is actually on the ship already?", he finished and leaned back again. The other minor stared at him thoughtfully, "I see… So that Chakuth has been chosen to stay here and defend this ship alone?", he asked.

"No! Of course not, that'd be suicide, he has been granted a team, and he chose a few Majors and it seemed he was also granted the help of a Sangheili and a Lekgolo duo…", he said and looked back noticing a few other Unggoy staring at them.

"It might be best to have this conversation somewhere else… Many of them are becoming restless and the elders believe something big is going to happen…". The younger minor said as he rose, and waited for his friend.

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Chakuth stared around, he hated this ship, it wasn't covenant and it sure didn't feel very 'home'. Not that any other ship felt like home to him, he'd rather be back on his own planet, with real gravity and fresh methane.

Xehn stood silently, he hadn't moved an inch for at least ten minutes now, while his brother hadn't stopped walking around.

The other Unggoy were fooling around, Miph sat next to Denakh talking about the demon. Calith and Vemeth had been arguing about a series of topics for the past few minutes.

The Sangheili of the team sat far away from his team, he felt no interest what so ever to stay near the Unggoy, or Lekgolo for that matter. To him the Lekgolo were just as obnoxious. They were handy in battle but that was all they seemed to be good for in his eyes. The thing that he hated most about them that they were a lot stronger then his race, and they simply refused to learn any other language then their own. They were also hard to contain, and the only order they would obey was 'kill the humans'.

He rolled his orange eyes and took them off his source of annoyance, back to the long deserted hallway of the Forerunner vessel. He hated the ship, even though it was from Forerunner technology he still found it a slug compared to his former fleet. He tried to ban the sounds his team mates made and focused on the rustling sounds at the end of the hall, near the door.

His pupils narrowed, he was sure he saw something moving. "Zhetey…", he whispered as he silently crouched back to the leader, "There's something at the end of the hall, I suggest you to take a look with some of your… friends…", he said as he looked down at the Unggoy.

Chakuth stared up at him, frowned and stared down the hall, "What do your sensors pick up?", he whispered. Duthaz stared at him, a penetrating stare, "Nothing… it's not moving…", he whispered back in a crispy tone. The young Unggoy walked forward, leaving the rest of his team staring at him, "Fine, I'll check it out…", he said as he neared the place the Sangheili had seen something.

He braced himself and drew his Fuel Rod gun, he was glad he was a Spec. Op. Unggoy, they got the best weapons, and the Fuel Rod was his favourite. He heated the gun, got ready to fire at any time and waited for the object to start moving. His custom armour was also equipped with a motion tracker, unlike the normal standard issue Spec. Op. armours.

He sharpened his hearing and sniffed around a bit, the scent was strange, he had never encountered it before, could it be that he and his team had accidentally stumbled upon the Demon? He signalled for Miph to silently walk towards him, and halted him as he stood safely behind a crate. Another silent signalling; _cover me._

Miph nodded and walked more to the right and waited to stand diagonally behind him.

Chakuth took a deep breath, it might well be his last, he exhaled and patted his trusty gun. Then ran around the corner, jumped and propelled himself outside the blast range of his gun, fired and waited for the blinding green light to dim down. The crate was completely black, and a pearlescent green flash moved by his eyes.

He felt his heartbeat spike, his breathing started to stagger, it was _him._ As he had located the dot on his sensor, he stared right at the reflective orange visor of the human in front of him. He felt his stomach burn as he took evasive action and jumped behind a crate. He could hear the demon swear out loud as his team opened fire on the 'Spartan'. It had to be the strangest situation in his life, he sat behind a crate, and right across him, against another crate, sat the reloading demon, silently and swiftly reloading it's weapon. Chakuth regained his breath and grabbed the dropped Fuel Rod gun and pointed it at the demon.

"Die! You monster!!", he shouted as he saw the visor turning his way again, a gun pointing at him and a stinging pain in his hand. He didn't let go however, his hand bled heavily but instead of dropping the heavy weapon he held tightly onto it and squeezed the trigger.

A super heated bolt of green terror made it's way towards the Spartan, who could just fire a few more bullets at the unlucky Unggoy before barely escaping. Chakuth ignored the other wounds and scuttled back on his feet, knowing that the demon's shields had completely died out. And he knew, when shields go down, attack and show no mercy…

He threw the heavy gun away and drew his plasma gun and fired a few well aimed blasts at the demon, hitting a few in the back. He tried so hard but couldn't get the demon down, it just kept running and eventually disappeared behind the bulkhead.

"Damn it!!!", Chakuth cried out grasping for his arm and leg, the stinging pain hit him as the demon had left. But he was damn sure that he scared it away, it probably never saw such power and tactic from a Unggoy. It didn't take long for his entire team to gather around him.

The Lekgolo brothers stared at the Unggoy then at the bulkhead, closing.

They gave each other a small gesture then walked forward. Chakuth stared at them, "Hey you two, don't get yourself killed, please…", he said as he reached his hand out to them. Kahlanx looked back, raised his massive gun in a reassuring move and turned around to follow his brother, Behemoths never failed.

Xehn stared around, he felt fantastic, there was nothing more interesting then going head to head with something that poses a great threat.

"Kahlanx… cover my back…", his heavy voice thundered. The reply was short and clean, seconds later his slightly smaller brother stood with his back against his own.

They armed their guns and hefted their shields. They never relied on sensors or fancy equipment, they had an instinct for killing and knew exactly when and where a prey would show up.

A green flash shot past, "Persistent, isn't he?", Kahlanx said laughing a bit. Xehn didn't reply, he loathed unnecessary talking on the battlefield. Even though their language could not be understood by any human, it still felt strange to talk over their strategies while acting them out. Xehn moved, his massive armour rattling with every step.

'There…', he thought and held his shield up and charged into the crate that hid the Demon. The enormous blow threw over the purple coloured crate and revealed the Spartan with two guns aimed at him. It fired, bolts of super hot blue plasma hasted their way towards the oldest Lekgolo. Xehn had dealt with Sangheili weapons before, they stood no chance against his armour plating and heavy shield.

By holding up the immense shield and hiding his soft skin within the amour, he was secure, there was no other danger around, and it was just him against the legendary demon.

He charged, the shield connecting with the body of the demon, it sent the cursed abomination flying for a few meters.

The Lekgolo let out a short laugh and watched how the pesky human rose and steadied it's balance. 'Unbelievable, that primate remains to stand…', he thought as he stared around the compartment for any helpful measures, then spotted the airlock. His class was resourceful, they were strong, very strong, but could also think up a well thought strategy instead of simply going in for a suicidal attack.

"Kahlanx, the airlock, pull it!", he shouted as he fired his Fuel Rod Gun to push the human back, closer to the airlock bulkhead.

His brother never doubted about a direct order, he raised his gun and smashed it into the holo panel. Even though Kahlanx knew it could also suck out his brother he watched as the massive gates opened and started sucking out precious air. Xehn braced his heavy body against a row of crates and watched how the demon fought against the force of the suction, in vein. After a short fight against the law of physics it let go, almost as if on purpose, and left the ship.

Xehn turned his head towards his younger brother, "Kahlanx!! The bulkhead! Close it!!", he shouted at the top of his breath.

Kahlanx also fought the suction, "I can't, the holo panel is broken!", the reply sounded, it was a desperate cry.

Xehn growled and grabbed one of the crates and pulled himself up, he stared at the shield on his arm and detached it, watching it fly off into the vacuum of space.

"Very well, Give me a hand!", he roared, and held out a hand to his brother, "We need to get inside the other compartment somehow!", he said as he grabbed on to the next crate.

Kahlanx nodded and made his way towards the bulkhead of the compartment they came from. A few crates broke from their straps and flew out with much commotion, scattering sharp debris everywhere. "Almost there!!", he shouted and detached his shield as well to hit the panel of the gate without damaging it. Xehn felt a feeling of pride cross his heart, his brother was a fighter, even though he could be a whiny pain in the ass sometimes.

The older Lekgolo slowly made his way towards the door and held his hand towards his younger brother, "For us!!", he shouted and grabbed his brother's hand and pulled himself towards him as the suction tugged on his body. Kahlanx pulled with all his strength, safeguarding his brother from a certain death in space.

Once within safe space behind the bulkhead wall he closed the gates and slid down against them with a loud bang. "Can't believe it actually worked…", Kahlanx huffed and stared at his brother.

"We did make it…", The older Lekgolo spoke calmly as he touched another holo pad to shut the airlock in the other room. A reassuring armoured hand came down on Kahlanx' shoulder, "You did good, thank you my brother…", he said as he walked past him and towards the 5 Unggoy and the Sangheili.

The Unggoy leaderstared out of the window, noticing the green demon getting picked up by a nearby ship, he shook his head. 'I will get my chance… you're going down… by my hand…', he thought as he stared back at the wounds he had.

Miph placed a hand over them and stared into Chakuth's eyes, "Hey, you feeling okay?", he started as he smiled a bit underneath his mask, "You scared me man, you were really not Unggoy just yet!", he added to it and patted his shoulder with his other hand. Chakuth smiled, it hurt but he knew that he had made it out alive, he took a deep breath of methane and exhaled again, it felt good. He turned to the Lekgolo brothers, they stood nonchalantly against the walls, talking to each other in their strange language.

"Xehn, Kahlanx, thanks you guys. You were great!", he said as he waved at the two.

The oldest of the two stared at the Unggoy, nodded and turned to his brother again.

Duthaz eyed the pack of Unggoy, he felt strangely alone all of a sudden. The two Lekgolo probably talked about a succeeded mission, the Unggoy praised their wounded leader for his bravery, by directly facing the demon, and he just stood there, his plasma rifle armed and ready in his hands, but with the battery coil untouched. He shook his head and sighed, walking towards the nearest crate and sat down against it, placing the gun on the ground.

"We should get you to the infirmary, the wounds have to be cleaned.", Miph started and helped Chakuth to his feet.

Calith and Vemeth swiftly supported their leader as Denakh picked up Chakuth's Rod gun. The Lekgolo stared at the 3 Unggoy holding up their friend and walking away, started at each other, then walked after them.

Kahlanx walked towards the pack of small aliens, lifted Chakuth off the shoulders of the Unggoy and held him up. "I'll carry him, we can walk faster this way…", he said, knowing they wouldn't understand a word he said. The Unggoy stared at him, made a few cheering noises and ran ahead of the massive Lekgolo.

Xehn stared at the Sangheili sitting against the crate, reached his hand out towards him and waited for a response. The former commander stared at the massive armoured hand, then at the head of the immense creature, smiled faintly and grabbed his hand, pulling himself up.

"Thank you…", he spoke softly as he marched after his team.

The Lekgolo raised his head satisfied, and stared out of the window how the human home world was still under Covenant attack.

"Next time we meet demon, you wont be so lucky…", he spoke as he turned away from the glass and followed his team-mates.

The Unggoy cheered, leading the way for Kahlanx, their high voices resonating though the halls of the ship compartment. Chakuth smiled faintly, even though he knew it wasn't a real victory, he had at least protected his Prophets, to live another day.

-------------

_Ohhh Xehn action! I should really draw him and his brother good sometime :D same goes for grumpy Duthaz, lol.  
__(i've allready got Chakuth and Miph drawn out :D)_

_Hope you liked, Chap 4 soon, I hope UU!_


	4. Action and Reaction

_Thanks for your support people!!_

_Disclaimer: I no own Halo... huuu.... cries_

**Chapter IV – Action and Reaction.**

"You what?!?", it roared through the Prophet's council chamber. Chakuth's team stood at full attention. They could not move an inch or make a sound, it might be considered insubordination.

Truth was angry, and the other prophets in the council were too, obviously.

"I can't believe that you actually let him go! You should have killed him on the spot, you had him cornered what's so hard about killing a lousy human?!", he roared.

Xehn stepped forward, his armour shook with his steps, "Permission to speak sir…", his voice echoed through the hall.

The Prophet stared at lower ranked Prophet questioning, "What did it say..?", he whispered. The minor, obviously studied the Lekgolo language stared at Truth, "he said Permission to speak, sir."

Truth returned his gaze to Xehn, "Permission denied, you're not the team leader, I wish to speak to Zhetey!". Miph stepped forward, not caring about protocols for a moment, "He's in the infirmary, being treated for shot wounds!", he said, slightly agitated. The entire council stared at the little Unggoy.

"And who gave YOU permission to speak?!", Truth said, while signalling to the Jiralhanae Honorary guards.

They stepped forward and grabbed Miph's shoulder pads, "Get him out of here…", Truth said.

Xehn stared at the Prophet, "Listen, I was the one who had him thrown off the Ship, Zhetey had nothing to do with it, on top of that, Zhetey was the one that pushed him into the other compartment. He got wounded and I took the liberty of finishing the deal.", he said.

Truth stared at his translator and waited for the other prophet to send him the message to his throne.

The prophet hovered forwards, gave the Lekgolo a very degrading stare and then at his brother, "Do you wish to be removed from your duty…?", he asked.

"No… I do not…sir…", Xehn answered. Truth turned around and stared at the message on his holo-pad.

"Well then, step back and be silent.", he said as he hovered back towards the rest of the prophets.

"Very well, bring me Zhetey, I want to have him here, I don't care how wounded he is, just bring him before me.", he said, "Lekgolo, bring him to me…", he said as he pointed at Kahlanx. The younger Lekgolo nodded and walked out of the room.

"The rest of you are dismissed…", he said as he turned away from them

Calith stared at Vemeth, concerned, "What do you think will happen to our team..?", Vemeth whispered and poked Calith softly. The older Unggoy sighed and just kept walking, hoping the Prophets wouldn't do anything bad to their leader.

----

Chakuth winced as the cold fluid was rubbed over his head wound, "It will leave a scar…", the medic said. The Spec. Op. stared at her and sighed, "I figured that… Well at least I have all the more reason to kick that human's ass", he said laughing a bit. The female Unggoy smiled faintly, "So how did your mission go?", she asked.

Chakuth sighed again, "I don't know, I have a bad feeling about it.", he replied and stared at her. She smiled faintly and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure things will be just fine.", she said and placed a bio-patch on his head wound. The doors suddenly opened and the massive Lekgolo stood in the door opening.

"Oh no! You can't come in here, it won't fit!!", she shouted at Kahlanx as he tried to force his body through the Unggoy sized bulkhead. Chakuth gave him an awkward look, "What's wrong Kahlanx", he said as the Lekgolo gave up trying.

Kahlanx turned his head towards Chakuth and pulled him self out, "You have to come to the council room, Truth wants to speak to you…", he said as he signalled his hands to 'come out'. Chakuth frowned and sighed, "I guess it means follow…", he said as he jumped off the treatment bed. "Well I'll be seeing you some other time.", he said as he walked out of the door.

She held her small handheld holo pad close to her, "Be careful Chakuth…", she whispered while turning away from the door.

Kahlanx stared at Chakuth, then walked in front of him. Chakuth could feel a very odd atmosphere around the Lekgolo, "Is it bad…?", he asked, breaking the silence.

The huge alien nodded his head and let out a frustrated growl, "Very bad, Truth is very angry, he took it off on Xehn and also had your friend Miph removed from the room…", he said. Chakuth frowned and wondered why the Lekgolo spoke to him, he couldn't understand it anyway, and they knew… "I… uh See…", he said figuring it probably had something to do with their mission.

When they arrived at the gate to the council room, Chakuth's team was standing there, Xehn leaned against a crate, Duthaz sat upon one and the 4 Unggoy sat on the ground near each other.

Miph rose, "Oh man, Chakuth… Truth is pissed off… he wants to speak to you…", he said with a concerned look.

Chakuth nodded and sighed, "I already had a bad feeling about it… but it just has gotten worse…", he said as he walked by them.

"Pray for me…", he said while he walked through the gate.

Truth had gotten impatient, and when the bulkhead opened he immediately burst into anger. "Where were you, why did it take so long?!", he shouted as he moved his arms angrily. Chakuth swallowed, it was weird to see an enraged prophet, and it looked kind of funny too.

"I'm sorry sir… My wounds had to be treated, they bled a lot…", he said as he showed his treated hand.

Truth have a crisp stare at it then stared directly into Chakuth's eyes, "Zhetey… Why did you not kill the demon?", he asked suddenly, the entire council was silent.

Chakuth stared around at first, took a deep breath, "I couldn't sir, I had fired my FR-gun on it, it had it's shields down, but my plasma gun weren't efficient enough to bring it to the ground…", he explained.

The prophet stared at him thoughtfully, "Take your team and board aPhantom to earth, I'm sure that it will try to kill me some other way… But I doubt it that he will try to board my ship again… After your… little adventure.", he said.

Chakuth nodded and sighed.

"Your mission remains the same, it just got harder, now you will have to find him on earth which is a lot more difficult, looking at the space the planet has to offer for hiding…", he said mocking Chakuth.

The Unggoy stared at the ground, then at the planet behind the Prophet, "Very well sir, I will take him down…", he said softly. "Dismissed…", Truth said as he turned away from Chakuth as he walked out of the room.

Truth stared at a Jiralhanae commander, "Have one of your men pilot that ship and make sure that it won't be able to return to this vessel… I don't need leaders that fail at my missions…", he said calmly and stared at the planet… "As soon as this planet is glassed and deprived of all it's inhabitants… Our Great Journey will begin… without the Sangheili and Unggoy…".

A Jiralhanae accompanied the young Spec. Op outside, "Wait here, your escort will be here soon…", the voice of the simian alien sounded. Chakuth nodded and rejoined his team.

Miph ran up to him, "Went bad didn't it..?", he asked, carefully. His friend nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Xehn stared at the Unggoy then at his brother, "Did you hear what the Prophet said…?", he asked his younger brother sitting against the bulkhead to the Council room. Kahlanx nodded slightly and removed his hand from the door, "I'm not sure though, Truth's voice doesn't give off many vibrations…", he said as he walked towards his brother.

The older Lekgolo held his head up a bit and stared into nothing, "What did he say...?", he asked.

"Something bad… Or at least, it sounded very bad…", Kahlanx replied and walked towards the team, "Even if it is something bad, we will not be able to tell them, they don't understand us…", he added to it.

"I'm well aware Kahlanx…", Xehn sighed and followed him.

It took quite some time before a Jiralhanae commander showed up, "Please follow me to the docks, We will board a cruiser there, is any of you qualified to fly a phantom?", he asked.

Duthaz rolled his eyes, "I am…", he said as he walked up to the Jiralhanae.

The biggeralien gave him a degrading look, then walked on, "Very well, you'll be piloting the craft and take me to my drop-off point…", he said and made his way to the docks.

The Lekgolo brothers stared at each other, "It doesn't sound good does it…?", Kahlanx asked his brother. Xehn was quiet, he always was when deep in thought and didn't answer until his brother gave him a soft punch against the shoulder.

"What…?", Xehn asked.

"I've got a bad feeling about this… The Jiralhanae isn't staying with us…", he said. Xehn nodded a bit, he was distant again.

Chakuth was tired, the world around him had faded a bit and he had mixed feelings about the odd mission he had been given.

Miph stared at Chakuth, "Hey… are you feeling alright?", he asked silently, grabbing his friend's hand. Chakuth stared at him, forced a pitiful smile and stared at the floor again, "Yeah I'm okay…", he said.

----

Denakh stared at the Phantom docked over them, "Whoa, it's pretty big!", he said strangely cheerful. Calith and Vemeth joined in, "It's cool, ain't it?", Vemeth said poking Denakh.

"Oh yeah!", the younger Unggoy said.  
"It'll be our death…", Calith said sarcastically, then laughed.

The Jiralhanae commander stopped, "Well step aboard, the Lekgolo first…", he said as he waited at the slope.

The Lekgolo brothers followed the orders of the commander, walked up the slope and sat down. Made themselves a bit smaller and waited for the team to enter as well. Chakuth was next, he walked up and stared at the brothers.

'It's like being transported to a prison camp on another planet…', Chakuth thought as he saw how the two massive and prideful Lekgolo hung their heads down. Miph sat down next to Chakuth and noticed it too, they usually didn't care much about the situation, but they seemed to feel bad now. The 3 other Unggoy followed, then the slope closed, leaving them in the dim purple light.

The engines of the Phantom roared to life as they felt how the ship left the docking bay and the gravity seemed to pull at their stomachs for a second. If there was anything Chakuth hated more then interstellar vessels, it were the transporters that took him places. He felt queasy, his stomach turned and it almost felt if they made a loop of some sort. It took to long, his hand and head still stung from the wounds, he stared at them, trying to forget the place he was in. A comforting hand of Miph suddenly made it's way over the shot wound on his hand, Chakuth stared at his friend and smiled behind his mask.

Duthaz watched the screens of the small craft, he was used to forcefully flying one of these and watched as the drop-off destination came in sight.

"You should land near that Phantom over there…", the Jiralhanae commander spoke as he pointed on the holo pad of the area.

The Sangheili nodded and flew the craft towards the directed point.

As they hovered over the Jiralhanae outpost the commander eyed Duthaz for the last time, "Fly to the next navigation marker on your area map, you'll find where the Prophets have expected the human craft with the demon in it has landed, take him out, then return to the ship, all there is to it.", he spoke, then made his way off the ship.

The Sangheili narrowed his eyes and stared in the back of the ship, the passenger compartment. He saw how the young Unggoy were surprised the commander hadn't stayed with them. Even the Lekgolo brothers looked concerned. He took a deep breath, then closed the bulkhead between the two compartments, locked up the slope and took the ship away from the outpost.

The Jiralhanae commander stared at how the Phantom took off, "It's a waste of ship if you ask me…", he said as he stared at the lower ranks of Jiralhanae guarding one of the many Covenant outposts in the human city.

"To bad we wont be seeing that fine piece of work in flight ever again…", he said as he walked into the base.

----

Duthaz slowed it down, checked his motion sensors on the ship, and then checked again. "Are they serious…?", he said to himself as he tapped the pad a bit, not believing what the instrument told him.

He opened up the intercom, "Zhetey… you might want to come here and see this…", he said and closed the com again, opening the compartment door. It didn't take long for the five feet tall alien to stand next to him, "What's the matter…?", he asked slightly curious.  
Duthaz pointed at the motion sensors then stared outside again, "Either it should be raining humans here, or we just flew over a human headquarters…", he changed view to a different angle, still showing up hundreds of red dots.

"Is this our navigation marker…?", Chakuth suddenly asked.

The Sangheili stared at the Unggoy then at the screen, "Yes, it seems to be our landing spot, but unfortunately they forgot to clear it for us.", he said as he let out a frustrated growl.

"Want me to get my other Unggoy and have them man the plasma turrets?", Chakuth asked.

"And show a pitiful try at shooting ants in an ant farm? I'd say we ignore orders and find another place to land, and infiltrate without them knowing it… I haven't run a check on how many it are, but I'm not planning to count dots either… Be my guest…", he snarled as he hit the thrusters and propelled the Phantom away from their Navigation marker.

The Lekgolo in the back stared at each other as they felt the sudden change of movement.

"You think that there's something wrong?", Kahlanx asked his brother as he braced himself a bit. Xehn stared at the end of the slope, "I'm not sure…", he said as he held on as well.

Chakuth hurried himself back into the passenger compartment, "Okay, listen up. We just found out that our landing strip is filled with human activity, meaning that if we'd land there, well.. I don't think more then a few scraps of iron will land there… That means we need another landing strip and infiltrate by means of stealth. It's not impossible, although Xehn and Kahlanx will have to fall behind us. Once 'Kinomanee has found us a good spot to land, we will head out and kill the demon.", he spoke as he took out his personal navigation pad, "Everyone, link up your own navigation system with mine, or we'll get lost. The humans don't have neatly structured buildings like the Covenant have.".

The ship came to a rough stop, it send Chakuth into a wall, "'Kinomanee! What happened!?!", Chakuth shouted over his intercom.

The Sangheili growled loudly, "Human anti-aircraft mechanism, they're everywhere, the damn bastards sent us into our deaths!!", he shouted as the ship suddenly made speed again.

Denakh stared around nervously, "We're all gonna die!!", he screamed in panic as Calith strapped him in tightly.

"No we're not you idiot, just hang on and be quiet!", Calith shouted as he strapped himself in as well. Vemeth was strangely calm, he was used to rough air battles and was a plasma turret veteran.

Chakuth got up slowly and checked his breathing equipment, as they checked out fine he hurried to the cockpit and closed the bulkhead.

"You'll need a navigator…", he said, as he jumped on the navigator's seat and strapped himself in.

"Is there anything you can't do…", Duthaz growled annoyed as he tried to dodge the shots the humans shot at them with a transporting vessel.

Chakuth grinned, "Just one thing… Fail…", he said as he stared at the Navigation screen and calculated escape routes.

The Sangheili did his best to dodge the rockets the humans launched at them, "Tell one of your Unggoy to man the turret, I'm sick of playing a sitting duck with this scrapheap!", he shouted and opened the bulkhead.

"Vemeth!",Chakuth shouted, "Man the turret, shoot as many of those human bastards as you can, just make sure you hit something!", he said as he waited for the Unggoy veteran to take his place behind the Plasma Turret.

"Great, now we're less sitting ducks as we were before.", Duthaz said as he backed up the ship and flew at the human gun turrets.

Vemeth took aim and fired, Chakuth could see he was a veteran, only a few shots missed, and most were so well-placed they also sent other things blasting into the sky. As he focussed back on navigating he tried to pin-point himself a landing spot between the red minefield of human manifestations. It seemed impossible, they were everywhere, and it seemed harder to believe this was a navigation error made by the prophets.

He closed his eyes, inhaled then exhaled again, 'Stay focussed Chakuth… you can do it…', he said to himself as he suddenly saw a destination that could be made if flown correctly.

"I've got one…", he said as he sent it to Duthaz' screen. The Sangheili nodded and roughly changed course, "Very well, hang on to your breathing gear and spiked butts…", he said as he flew between huge skyscrapers to their destination.

As the navigational marker came in sight the Sangheili narrowed his eyes. "Do you want me to park this thing in a skyscraper…?", he asked as a big building slowly came into vision.

Chakuth stared out of the small window only to see the building coming in fast, "There shouldn't be a building there…", he said as he stared at his screen, "We should just be able to fly right though at this altitude…", he said as he shifted from the screen to the window.

Duthaz rolled his eyes, "I guess now buildings have learned to magically appear as well?", he said as he hit the thrusters and gained speed. Chakuth stared outside again, squinted his eyes and suddenly saw why the Navigator gave it as a possible option, "'Kinomanee!! The building, it has a hole the size of a phantom constructed into it. We can fly through easily!", he said as he stared at the Sangheili, who felt it necessary to grin.

"Fine, we'll push trough, I'm sure the humans will love that… You, gunner.", he said as he poked Vemeth, "Fire once we entered the hole in the building, make sure it will collapse the moment that human aircraft flies through… It will give us some time to land and get away from the craft.", he said as he kept his eyes on the outside.

Vemeth nodded and focussed on his target.

"What human aircraft…", Chakuth suddenly asked. Duthaz eyed him for a brief second, "The one that has been following us the moment we flew over that human base… I guess I forgot to mention that…", he said dryly as he focussed on keeping the Phantom aloft.

"Just great, are they firing on us?", he asked as his concerned look returned to the navigator screen.

"Apparently not, I don't have rear view mirrors now do I, and you haven't felt the ship buckle. Meaning that ship is simply following us to our destination and take us out on ground level…", he said as the building came intensely close.

"That's why the Unggoy behind the turret here, has to destroy the foundations the upper half of the building rests on.".

Chakuth nodded, "Good, we'll be fine…", he said softly as he tried to remain calm.

As the Phantom made it's way into the building's odd construction Vemeth hit the triggers and the Plasma weapon fired, continuously biting it's way through the steel.

Vemeth stopped firing, "Now would be a good time to activate some afterburners!!".

The building moaned, the crippled and molten steel collapsed under it's own weight as the upper top of the building came down on it's lower half. The enormous force of the two colliding and crumbling masses of steel and concrete whipped up a giant dust cloud, blocking all vision for the small carrier Phantom.

"Are we through?", Vemeth asked as the ship slowed back into it's regular flight pattern.

Silence, then the human aircraft flew past them with high speed leaving the Covenant in the Phantom stunned.

"How in the world… could they have dodged that… they were right on our tail!", Duthaz shouted out as he took evasive actions to not get caught in the Pelican's trail.

"It's just gonna have to get rough from here on, Gunner, shoot them out of the sky, no remorse!", the Sangheili roared as he straightened the ship and entered a hot pursuit.

"You got it!", Vemeth shouted as he fired the plasma turrets at the human ship.

Chakuth smiled faintly, "Well, from a slow and boring cat and mouse game, into a real dog fight, that's new!", he said as he stared outside the window.

"Just sit back and watch, this won't take long.", Duthaz said as he closely followed the other craft.

Vemeth kept his three turrets locked on the Pelican as good as he could, shooting the super hot bolts of plasma at it, hitting quite frequently. Chakuth stared at the now red glowing tail of the human ship, it felt good. Even though their mission seemed impossible, this was a good start.

A sudden shock threw Duthaz off his seat, Chakuth's head forcefully bumped into the screen and the world seemed to stop for a short moment. The lights in the craft went red as the ground came closer every second, Chakuth felt his head sting as he could barely open his eyes, the smoke prohibited him from seeing anything clearly. Then a much greater impact shook the ship, and everything that hadn't faded from Chakuth's vision before, was black now…

---------

_Ah ohhh that doesn't sound good does it? Cliffhanger? Hmmm I guess so XD R&R please :)_


	5. A Less Brighter Future

_Author's Note: Sorry about the late update, I was thinking about revising the entire chapter :/ I thought a long time about the chapter title aswell... ugh :P_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Halo and the likes just the characters X3_

**Chapter V – A Less Brighter Future.**

"_That's odd…"_, Everything hurt, Chakuth's entire body felt like it was on fire, his head was throbbing and it felt like his hand was bleeding again. Annoying bleeping noises filled his hearing and it only made the pain worse, the black shadows hovering over him and their voices weren't very reassuring either.

"_I wonder why there's so few of them, that's not like normal Covenant strategy, so far it's only one Elite, five Grunts and two Hunters…"._

"_That's all there is to it, I'd like to call it a suicide mission!"_, a penetrating laugh sounded.

"_Hey have you seen the armour on them though? It doesn't look like any normal ranking armour the bastards usually wear…"._

Chakuth felt his body being dragged and faintly opened his eyes, more shadows…

-------------

The light stung in his eyes, it made them tear. As he opened his eyes he saw lights passing by his head continuously, he groaned and closed his eyes again.

"I think they're just severely shaken up, the Grunts and the Elite have a steady heartbeat, with the Hunters I simply don't know how to check if they're alive or not…", a voice spoke out of nowhere, it woke Xehn. With a swift movement he sat up, spikes positioned upwards. He had found himself into a human base somehow, and the little devils around him prancing about in panic made the situation all the more awkward.

He roared jumped to his feet and rose, only to hit his head against the ceiling with a loud bang. The commotion in the room stopped for a moment as all eyes were fixed on the massive Lekgolo who had his head completely submerged into his armour, holding his huge hands over it.

"Would you look at that…", a human in a long white coat said as he tried to approach the Lekgolo.

Xehn's head shot out as he stared around at the humans surrounding him, he growled loudly and charged at the nearest human, even though he was stripped of his weapon and shield. The human that stood before the massive alien before was now spread onto the wall in a flurry of blood and tissue, the massive force of the Lekgolo had squished him on the spot.

Panic ruled again in the room and a few humans pleaded for their lives and screamed about how much of a bad idea it was to bring in the two Lekgolo.

"Tie it to the ground somehow!!", one screamed, then got Xehn's arm against his head. He went wild, the screaming humans made him nervous, and they weren't even carrying weapons. He roared and charged into the nearest door he could find, "I need to get out of here!! Let me out!!", he screamed, suddenly in panic as well as a high pitched noise filled his being.

"What is all this commotion!", a heavy voice sounded as another human in a white coat walked in and pointed a dart gun at the Lekgolo and shot him down.

With a heavy thud Xehn plummeted to the ground and held his head up with all his strength, muttered a few Lekgolo native words, then let his head fall on the ground and stopped moving.

"My god… please have someone clean this mess… and chain both of the Hunters to the ground, they aren't the usual Hunters that the Covenant dispatch out, these are much larger and wear different armour…", the human said as he cocked his head and rested the gun on his shoulder.

Xehn couldn't move anything anymore, but he still felt conscious as cold metal ran over his un-armoured parts, his head hurt and it didn't take long for his entire body to start hurting as well.

'Where am I…', he thought as his consciousness slipped away from him.

-------------

Chakuth had slept straight through the commotion Xehn made earlier but now woke up slowly.

His head still hurt and it seemed his wounds had been treated, he fought the pain and sat up, noticing he had laid on his back just before. His first instincts were panic, "Where's my Methane tank?!", he shouted as he grabbed the mask on his face, following the hose to a small tank on the ground next to his bed.

"What the hell is this place…", he asked himself as he stared around the clean empty room. It suddenly came to his mind how the last thing he had seen were black shadows above his head and voices.

He rubbed over his chest and noticed he was not in his armour either, "What the hell is going on here?!", he shouted as he felt that the air around him was just the same temperature as his life support system offered him. An awkward feeling crossed his mind as he tugged loosely on the strange patches attacked to his scaled skin.

The door opened, and a female human in thick clothing walked in, "Don't be afraid… I won't hurt you…", she said as she approached Chakuth.

The young Unggoy frowned, "Hey! You should be afraid of me you pesky human!", he said as he growled softly. She chuckled and walked closer checking the slate that hung next to the bed, "I'm sure I should be, I see that you heal very fast, that's good to know.", she interrupted him.

Chakuth gritted his teeth underneath his mask and growled slightly, "Why am I here, why didn't you just kill me?! And where are my friends?", he asked as he pulled on the small sensors on his chest.

"Please leave those on…", the human spoke as she simply ignored his questions, she walked around his bed then stopped, "Are you the leader or is the Elite the leader?", she asked.

Chakuth stared at her in confusion, "Elite? What… Oh… you mean Duthaz… No I'm in command of this team.", he said as he crossed his arms.

"It's funny…", she started, "When I saw you and your crew unconscious on the floor of that crashed phantom…". "Taken out of the sky by you people…", he stared at her as he forced her sentence to a stop.

Her stare in return was a surprised one, "What I'm trying to ask is, why a Grunt like yourself has the command over much more powerful creatures then yourself. Didn't your race have some sort of Hierarchy?", she asked, seemingly interested in his ways.

"First of all, you all know that the Covenant is a collection of races, for one, I'm not a Grunt, my race is called Unggoy… And to answer your question, Yes there is a hierarchy, but the Prophets are the supreme rulers of the Covenant, we Unggoy have different takes on prophecies and religion. Then to speak about me, I'm a direct descendant of one of the greatest Unggoy generals that has ever lived. Meaning that I too possess high quality leadership and tactics. My profession is Special Operations and Navigation. Does that answer your question?", he said as his answer left her dumbfounded.

"I guess it does then, I'm surprised, we know so little about your kind and your functions within the Covenant other then those on the battlefield. Then how did you became the commander of this team, and why are you here without more assistance?", she continued asking, and it dawned to Chakuth that if he'd work along with his best performance, he might have a chance to eventually get out of this room.

"I became a commander because the Prophet of Truth asked me to, I'm here for the sole purpose of assassinating the demon… the Master Chief or whatever you humans want to call it…", he said with a disrespectful tone.

She stared at him, squinted her eyes in curiosity, "So you actually believe that he could not take you on, but slaughter your kind on the battlefield with ease?", she asked.

Chakuth became silent for a few heartbeats, then inhaled, "Yes, I do believe that, besides I'm not alone…", he said.

"You're quite full of yourself! But you're alone here now aren't you, what would you do if he'd point a gun at you and threatened to kill you?", the human asked, turning their conversation into somewhat of a strange verbal fight.

"I wouldn't be afraid, check my surroundings, then calculate on what can get, you called it a him… I assume it's male then, 'him' down and attack.", he said defiantly.

She started laughing, "I'd like to see that, you're chained to that bed though! Then what?". Chakuth groaned, "Come on! What kind of conversation is this? Are you testing my patience?", he sighed, "Fine, I will accept my death and pray for my brethren to take him out anyway…", he said and looked at the huge reflective glass on the wall behind him.

"I see… you're not like the other Grunts, ehm, Unggoy aren't you?", she asked as she grabbed his hand suddenly.

He stared at her, almost as if insulted and watched how she pulled off the layer of bio-foam that she had put on his wound earlier, it was healed completely.

"How did it heal so fast…?", he asked quietly.

"Because we know how to treat bullet wounds… don't you?", she replied, also awkwardly silent.

Chakuth sighed and turned away, "Is the scar on my head permanent?", he asked suddenly, turning his head back to her.

Her returning stare at him was strange, he had never expected so many visible emotions from the filthy humans, were they really so different…? "I haven't treated that, it's closed but it will certainly leave a scar, yes… Or at least, that is what I'd expect when looking at your skin…", she said.

"Where are my friends…?", he asked again, staring in her eyes with his big black eyes. She stared back, her green coloured eyes were nothing like he had ever seen before, they were so colourful, like the green sky over his home world. He squinted with his eyes as his pupils narrowed.

"They're in the other room, I've been asking them some questions as well, but they don't seem to answer when I ask them.", she said.

Chakuth's stare focussed on the ground again, "Did all four other Unggoy survive?", he asked. She nodded, a short reply, and a custom he used as well when agreeing or acknowledging.

"We had a little trouble with the biggest of the two Hunters though, he woke up and caused a lot of commotion, even killed one of us…", she said as she hung the slate back on the end of his bed.

"Xehn killed one of you people?", he asked.

"Is that his name? Xehn?".

"It is… yes.", he replied to her, and laid back on the bed.

"So, how long will you keep us chained to our beds…?", Chakuth asked as he moved his head to look at the strange glass behind him, "Why are there people staring at me…", he said suddenly as he got up and turned to look at it.

She frowned, "You can see through it?", she asked.

"No, I just saw something moving in it, not really clear but things move occasionally…", he replied calmly.

She looked surprised, then waved at them, and listened to the earplug, "Well, I've just heard that the Chief wants to speak with you, now that he knows you're in this base. Obviously you two have met before…", she said and walked towards the door, "Please, get into your armour and wait at the door until the light turns green…", the human said before disappearing behind the door.

Chakuth's shackles loosened themselves and he jumped off the bed, walked to his armour and helped himself into it, then lifted his methane tank onto his back and turned it on. He inhaled from the other methane tank and held his breath, pulled it off his face and placed his mask over his head.

He exhaled and inhaled his own methane, it was so much better then the human one.

As he felt it to be ready he tugged a bit on his armour then walked to the door waiting for the red light to turn green, and that didn't take very long. As he took a first step outside the room, two human soldiers immediately grabbed his hands and chained them again.

"I won't do anything you know!", he said in protest, but they didn't reply and walked him down the metal hall.

The orange sun burned in Chakuth's eyes as his pupils fought to adjust to the bright light.

He found himself on a huge empty and almost desolate ground, it was empty and only in the distance he could see the buildings of the city. Were the Prophets ever so wrong with their navigation.

In front of him stood the imposing figure of the demon, he stood without his helmet, with his back faced to Chakuth. He turned around. Chakuth's hands were released as the two soldiers walked away, leaving Chakuth with the demon.

An awkward silence fell between the two, as a gust of warm wind blew past them. The young Unggoy couldn't see more then the contours of the demon's face, in this light, he looked more dark and eerie then he already did.

"Why did you want me here, demon…?", Chakuth started, wondering any possible outcomes for the conversation he was about to have.

Another silence, then the Spartan turned his head into the light, revealing he too was just human. Chakuth almost didn't expect him to actually look human, he was much taller then most of them, and also much smarter, stronger too.

Then the human's deep heavy voice sounded, "You fight good with Fuel Rod Guns…".

Chakuth felt it odd to have the legendary human pest talking to him, "You fight well in all situations, or so I have heard…",he replied and took his stare off the demon.

It obviously wasn't a reply the human had expected, he remained silent for a good while, "I must admit, you're quite the brave Grunt…", it sounded again, and Chakuth noticed how a faint smile overcame the demon's firm serious face. The young Unggoy took a deep breath, then gathered the courage to walk towards the demon and stand next to him.

The human took his stare off the horizon and focussed his eyes on the young Unggoy, "Why were you sent here with such a small group of warriors…", he asked.

Chakuth sighed, "That question has been asked before, I was sent here to assassinate you…", he said as he placed his hands on his hip.

The Spartan shook his head slightly, "Impossible, you could have known that we would shoot you out of the sky, it was inevitable…", he said as he stared at the horizon again.

Chakuth huffed, "Impossible in your eyes maybe, but I am still standing here aren't I?", he said fiercely.

The human couldn't resist but chuckle, "Only because we have saved your little asses…", he spoke. Chakuth gritted his teeth, "Yeah, why did you anyway?", he asked as he stared at the demon.

"For the obvious reasons that you were with so little in that ship, you wear different armour and there are no Brutes with you…", he replied.

"Brutes…? You mean Jiralhanae? What do they have to do with us being in that ship?!", Chakuth asked.

"I guess you haven't noticed the fights going on between the Elites and the Brutes? On what level do you live anyway, they slaughtered each other, without remorse. And it also seemed the Prophets didn't care much about it.", the human said.

Chakuth's eyes narrowed, "What are you trying to say exactly…?", his tone changed.

The human shrugged, "Just the fact that your race and that of the Hunters and Elites are being cast out of the Covenant?", he said dryly.

The Unggoy grunted softly, "I don't believe that, Truth himself has sent me on this mission, how could he want me dead if he has sent…", his thoughts interrupted themselves as he suddenly felt the urge to swallow a big chunk that had formed itself in his throat.

The demon turned his head to the Unggoy, "Sent what?", he asked.

The Unggoy's eyes had widened, he was completely silent, thoughts raced through his mind as he tried his very hardest to place the pieces of the puzzle.  
"The Prophet of Truth… he has sent our best Unggoy Leaders with unqualified Jiralhanae soldiers to earth, and later told me, they wouldn't survive it anyway. I was the last Unggoy High Commander left… Later we heard about you… you in the forerunner ship…", he said, distantly.

The human seemed interested in the little Unggoy's story, "Then one of your Hunters practically blew me off the ship, yes.", he said.

"The navigation marker… it was pin-pointed directly over your air-defence systems, why would he do that…", Chakuth asked himself out loud as he felt his knees become weak.

"I can tell you that one, from what I've heard, they only plan to go into their 'great journey' with the Brutes, Drones and Jackals…", he said.

Silence, the Unggoy was hardly even breathing as all came clear, something very strange was happening within the Covenant, and he had to find out. "I must talk to my team, please. I won't plan anything against you, I must know what is going on here!", he said as he stared into the demon's eyes.

The human frowned, it seemed in thought for a short moment, then grabbed his helmet from the ground, placed it over his head and opened a com-link...

Another awkward Silence.

"Very well, your friends will be escorted outside then you get the time to talk with them. You get 10 minutes…", he said as he walked inside the structure.

Chakuth was surprised, 'Why does he do that for me… what does he want from me…', he thought as he stared at the ground.

--------

It didn't take long before the doors opened again and his entire team strolled out.

Miph immediately ran towards Chakuth, the other three followed quick enough, Xehn and Kahlanx followed slowly, with Duthaz behind them. The human behind them signalled another human in a watch tower nearby, then stared at Chakuth, "10 minutes…", he said then closed the door.

"You guys… The demon just made a very clear point about why we were sent here…", he started.

"I think, that if we'd search around a bit here, we can find a lot of Phantom Wrecks, all shot down by the humans. I'm getting a strange feeling we were not sent here to kill the demon, but instead, to die here like all previous Unggoy high commanders did…"

---------

_T3h Omg!! There are big changes ahead for Chakuth and his friends and how will they overcome this trial. And WHAT is it with MC OO! Dundundunnn.... ;) Keep R&R'ing please :)_


	6. Escape

**_Author's note: Thanks to the fans that continue to read my story :) I appreciate it :D!!_**

**_Disclaimer: Don't own Halo, just the characters _**

**Chapter VI – Escape**

Chakuth felt the eyes of his team penetrate him, on one side it felt good to have a team that trusted and depended on you, on the other it felt very frightening to have them along.

"I believe there's a reason that Truth has sent us here, I mean, why would he sent our landing point in a Human base… Isn't that defined as Suicide for Covenant Soldiers? Other then that, He sent the other Unggoy High commanders to their deaths, by lying to them…"

Kahlanx felt his brother's obvious message, _"Seems he found it out too…",_ he turned his head towards Chakuth and stepped forward.

"Listen to me, Unggoy… I heard the Prophets talking, they said that..", he was interrupted, his brother pulled him back.  
"They don't understand a thing you're saying…", he said calmly and crossed his arms.

Xehn sighed and stared at Duthaz, who seemed to ignore the Unggoy's revolting speech, "Seems our ex-commander high and mighty 'Kinomanee doesn't really care about what's happening…", he said silently then turned his head back to Chakuth. The young Unggoy Commander stared at the two Lekgolo brothers, "I really wish I could understand what you two said to me, I think you two know more about it as well. I heard your kind hears a lot better then most of the races in our Covenant do…", he said as he stared at Kahlanx, who nodded slightly.

Miph sighed and frowned, "Well in any way, we're stuck here, as prisoners of a human research laboratory. If we try to escape they will turn us into Jackal feed, and that's not really something I plan to become…", he said as he too crossed his arms.

Vemeth stared at the turrets in the watch towers, "Well… I think I can operate one of the human turrets as well, they don't seem very different from our Shades or Plasma Turrets…", he said as he shielded his eyes from the sunlight.

Chakuth closed his eyes and groaned, pressing his hand against his forehead, "That's just our luck isn't it… stuck in a Human base…", he said in thought, "Let me see what we've got here… 5 skilled Unggoy… 2 Behemoth Class Lekgolo, and one ex-Commander Sangheili… In other words, what would we do in a normal war?".

Duthaz rolled his eyes and walked forward, "Kill humans, it's what we're all trained for right? Well, All except for the rookie of course… We have one adult Lekgolo, and one Adolescent Lekgolo, I'd say when we're inside, cause some sort of chaos, slaughter some humans and get the hell out of the complex by piloting one of their crafts… one that can fly in space of course…", he said dryly.

Chakuth stared at Duthaz calmly, "And how do you oppose to do that… huh? The Lekgolo have no weapons, no shields and well, I'm not armed either…".  
The Sangheili growled in frustration, "Have you no imagination? I can't believe you're a high Commander! It's easy, pretend!", he said.  
Chakuth grinned underneath his mask, "Well I knew you were a bit more creative!".

The door of the complex opened, and the soldier that accompanied them before stood waiting for them, "Well, your time's up…", he said with a grim face.  
"Okay, ready guys…", Chakuth whispered and walked in first, with the rest of the Unggoy and Duthaz following.

Xehn was next, and like the team had thought it up, he collapsed and let out a growl. Kahlanx acted out panic and roared. The soldier obviously didn't know what to do and seemed to panic as well, Chakuth smiled faintly and tugged the human's trousers, "Hey! Do something, what if he dies?! It'd be a waste of specimen right?! The lab people will be angry!", he hoped the human was really as gullible as he looked.

The human bit his lip, "I don't know what to do!", he said as he kneeled down next to the fallen Lekgolo.

Duthaz stepped forward and coldly hit the human in the back of his neck with his strong arms, "There, easy as that, let's find the hangar…", he said as he grabbed the firearms of the human and walked away. Kahlanx couldn't help but chuckle and helped his brother up, "This was almost too easy don't you agree?", he said and followed the Unggoy and Duthaz down the hall.

Xehn knew instinctively this wasn't supposed to be so easy, "…Yes, very easy…", he muttered and followed his brother. He felt his heart pick up pace as he heard voices down the hall, 'This wasn't a good idea at all, it's never gonna work. There's no way the humans are this stupid…', he thought as he stared ahead.

Miph felt a hint of victory as he saw signs on the floor named Hangar, "Hey you guys, left here, it can't be far, there are signs on the floor! Hah, stupid humans!", he said. Duthaz grinned, as the left turn lead them to their destination. His smile was immediately wiped off his face as he saw the hangar was filled with human soldiers, armed human soldiers…

Xehn shook his head, "That's my cue!", he shouted and pushed Duthaz out of the way, grabbing the nearest piece of scrap metal he could find.

"Xehn, No!!", Kahlanx shouted at his brother as he watched the older Lekgolo charge into battle.

The massive Behemoth Class warrior smashed at the first human he could find, he had his head into his armour as far as he could still see and his spines stood straight up in anger and excitement. He couldn't help but smile as a big group of screaming humans running to get their weapons in panic.

"Kahlanx!! The Longsword fighters, They are space-bound crafts, takethe teaminto one and get the hell out of here!".

The younger Lekgolo felt his world fall apart as he could see a cluster of humans run at his back with guns. "No Xehn, Damn it, I'm not leaving you here! We're staying together, for us remember no-one gets left behind!!", he screamed.  
In the confusion Kahlanx charged into the armed group of humans without a weapon or shield. Xehn turned his head after his front was cleared, his temper flared and he growled, "Damn you Kahlanx…", he muttered as he kicked some human weapons to the unarmed hiding Unggoy.

Chakuth grabbed the first weapon he could find, it was a human shotgun, he never handled one of the big guns before but knew that there was no weapon harder to handle for his kind then a Fuel Rod Gun. He ran towards another group of humans and learned the gun he handled was best at close ranges.

Vemeth already found his place at the end of the hangar, there were stationary turrets, his kind of weapon. He had a perfect aim with guns that were bigger then he was. He narrowed his eyes and studied the weapon he had in his hands, placed his hands over the triggers and aimed, "This can't be harder then a Plasma Turret…", he spoke to himself and aimed at a few humans, then fired.

Miph had already found himself a pair of human hand guns, if there was anyone really deadly with the weakest looking guns it was Miph. He had the habit to sneak in really close and shoot his enemies in the back, Chakuth never really approved with his style of fighting, but he had to give, It was fast and very effective with charged plasma guns.

Calith was a more honourable fighter, like Chakuth he preferred head on with deadly ballistic weapons, his only misfortune was his rank, a major Unggoy, meaning he had no access to weapons of higher power then the carbines. Still he was deadly with the Carbines, he had a thing for headshots and he was good at it.

Denakh still found it a good idea to remain hiding, he had little experience on the battle field, he trembled and held his hands over his ears to block out the gunshots and screaming humans.

"Oh I curse the day that you kicked me into the army father…", he muttered as he closed his eyes.

Xehn roared loudly as he smashed a human away from his brother's back, "Enough Kahlanx!", he shouted as the hangar seemed to be deprived of humans for the time being. His younger brother stared at him directly, he could feel a certain pain come from the younger Lekgolo. He knew damn well that a separation of bond-brothers was a taboo if none of them died, but he had to make sure the ship with his brother in it could fly out of the hangar safe.

"You must go now Kahlanx… please…", Xehn said quietly, knowing his brother could hear him perfectly. Kahlanx felt the awful feeling again, then grabbed Denakh from behind a crate andpushed him towards the ship.

Xehn roared and signalled for Duthaz to warn the other Unggoy to get into the ship as well, it was now or never. The Sangheili stared at the Lekgolo and nodded, "Unggoy, into the ship, NOW!", he shouted as he ran towards the human Longsword fighter.

Chakuth stared at Xehn before he ran up the slope into the ship, 'Please, live for me Xehn, live for Kahlanx too…', he thought as he pulled Miph, Vemeth and Calith inside. Xehn stared at the wave of humans running into the hangar as the ship just flew off and made it's way into the atmosphere. Among the humans was the demon, he stared at the oddly coloured armour that supposedly made the human so fearsome.

The Lekgolo felt nothing, just a strange misplaced pain in his mind.

"Well, seems they left something behind ey?", a humanmarine bloated as he aimed for Xehn's head. The demon lowered the soldier's gun and stepped forward calmly, even though the heavy piece of iron the Lekgolo carried could easily crush him.

"I knew this would happen, yet I didn't stop you from thinking up this plan…", the human said as he stopped only a few metres from Xehn.

"Your team is a tough nut to crack, hard but not impossible…", he continued as he walked around Xehn, staring at the ground.

"What do you want from me human…?", Xehn said, his heavy voice losing all signs of excitement it had in the battle.

The demon stopped and stared at the Lekgolo, "So your race does talk, not like the Elites, or Grunts, but your own sophisticated language… I'm not surprised…", his voice sounded calm and almost a bit gentle, no matterhow heavy his voice was.

Xehn felt a strange chill run down his spine, knowing they couldn't understand him he couldn't help but ask, "Are you going to kill me or what…?", he asked.

The human shook his head, silently.

The Lekgolo tilted his head and followed every movement the human made As he started to walk around him again.  
"Did you know we have the same enemies, Hunter?", the humans started suddenly and stopped in front of Xehn. "The flood and the rest of the Covenant, Truth's Brutes, Jackals and Drones… I've seen how you, the Grunts and Elites battled them, there's a big uprising within the Covenant, and I think… that we'd be better off fighting with each other then in an all out free for all battle that will ultimately, destroy us all…".

Xehn didn't move, he felt the human stare at him through the orange reflective visor. He felt weird enough, and now the human wanted to make a bond between his kind and the humans… He remained quiet however, he felt a deep hatred for the Jiralhanae that took over the city he grew up in, the beautiful High Charity never was the same after the changing of the guards and after the Sangheili had failed to protect The prophet of Regret, they were slaughtered for no reason at all.

For a moment he felt alone, there were a few memories of strange things happening, but most of the memories were good ones, ones that didn't involve him blowing up things, or running around battlefields killing humans.

The bulkhead opened, and the female laboratory worker walked out, "I think I have a solution to the problem of not understanding them Chief. ", she said and walked towards Xehn.

"It's a simple translator, it got sent here a while ago, from the times of the first Halo, when the Elites hadn't learned our language yet.", she spoke and held up the odd device.

Xehn knew the little things, they formed a magnetic ring around the necks of the Sangheili, he had seen how a few choked on them in battle back when they were still testing them. In his place he had little choice but to let them put the device on his neck, he actually felt it might be the start of something interesting.

"We simply hold it in front of it's neck and the device should tune in to whatever language it speaks, crafty bastards, aren't they?", she said as she walked closer to the massive alien and stared up his imposing 3,7 meters. She bit her lip gently, "I don't think I can reach that far…", she said as she stared at the demon.

Xehn grunted softly and bent his head towards her making it possible for her to put it on. "Thank you…", she said and placed the translator against Xehn's orange leathery skin. Against her expectations of what it would feel like, it was actually quite warm and soft. The ring sealed itself around his neck and activated with a series of coded beeps when the red symbol on it turned green.

"Well that should do it…", she said and stepped back to stand next to the demon.

Xehn felt all eyes on him it made him nervous, "Well… What are you staring at…?", he said. The female human smiled, "Another great piece of work made by the Covenant, successfully stolen by humans.

"Good…", the demon spoke suddenly, "Do you think your team will make it to the Forerunner ship?".

Xehn let out a minor laugh, "I see you have forgotten how a single Unggoy took you on last time we met, his reckless bravery brought me here with you people, I don't think we have to really worry about them, but it's never a bad idea to reinforce a good idea.".

The demon nodded slightly, "Don't worry, we'll cover that part. You should try to make contact with your race within the Forerunner ship.", he said, then walked away.  
The Lekgolo stared at him, _'Obnoxious but still an amazing human, I hope this sudden bond will make an end to this pointless war…'_, he thought.

-----------

"How long until we get to the Forerunner ship, 'Kinomanee?", Chakuth asked the Sangheili piloting the human craft.

"I have no idea, this stupid ship doesn't have very advanced navigating… it's fast but no match for our Seraphs…", he said as he peered down onthe radar.

Denakh sat against a wall, his head hung down, 'I can't believe I was to scared to do anything back there… I'm so worthless…', he sighed as he felt a tear roll down from his cheek.  
Kahlanx stood next to him, endlessly staring out of the small window to earth, hoping to see just one sign from his brother

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_Eeehhh!! Xehn!! nuuu cries hahah :P he's so heroic, crazy Lekgolo. Well, hope you likey :D on to chappeh 7! Keep R&R-ing_


	7. Betrayal

_Author's note: Ohhh finally chapter 7 :) Hope you like!!_

**Chapter VII – Betrayal **

Duthaz typed in some encrypted messages and sent them to the Forerunner vessel, hoping they wouldn't see them as a human threat. So far, even though there were intense battles in the space around earth, they hadn't been attacked by any of the sides. He was tired and his head hurt from the several tests the humans performed on him earlier.

As the image of the greater beyond slowly passed by him while slowly closing in to the immense ship. He leaned back, let out a soft sigh and observed the several but swiftly dying out dog fights. It seemed that they were easily winning the orbital fights, it was simply too easy.

As soon as he heard a bleep he sat up again and stared at the screen where a small message popped up, _"Duthaz 'Kinomanee, We have received your message and are surprised to learn you are still alive. We noticed you have managed to capture a human vessel and use it against them. Very cunning, we didn't expect less, please follow the guiding into the vessel."_.

"How unnaturally kind…", he said softly as he placed his four-fingered hands on the controls and gently flew the ship in trajectory to the Forerunner ship.

Chakuth walked into the cockpit, he too looked worn out. It seemed his entire team was still quite in pain from the rough crash they endured. He had been hearing his holo-pad beep a lot lately, and eventually decided to turn it off, not really caring what could be the disturbance in his needed rest.

"As soon as we get a little refreshment stop and some Methane refills we can leave back for earth again.", the Unggoy said as he stood next to the Sangheili. The ex-commander nodded slightly and watched how the automatic guidance lights of the ancient vessel showed him his landing spot.

"For a piece of junk it's quite modern, don't you agree?", Duthaz said smiling faintly.

Chakuth smiled underneath his mask, "Now that you mention it, it is, isn't it.".

There was a long silence until the human Longsword fighter touched the deck underneath it and it was secured.

----------

The mood of Chakuth's team remained awfully low, no one spoke a word until they were asked something from outsiders, their answers were short and distant. And Kahlanx decided to remain quiet, even if others asked him things.

The atmosphere on the ship had severely changed, there hardly were any Sangheili or Unggoy, just armies and armies of Kig-Yar, Yanme'e and Jiralhanae, even some Lekgolo, but Kahlanx could easily identify those as the scum of his race, 'they who didn't follow ancient Lekgolo codes'.

As soon as they reached the gate to Truth's council chamber they were suddenly surrounded by an entire flock of armed Jiralhanae.

"You will be escorted to the prison cells, please follow without further ado."

Chakuth stepped forwards, "Excuse me? Prison cells? We didn't do anything wrong!!", he said surprised and slightly offended.

The Jiralhanae gave him a penetrating death stare, "Hold you mouth Unggoy, your race is no longer of service to the Covenant, all remaining leaders of the Unggoy race are to be neutralized or locked away until further notice.".

The High Commander gritted his sharp teeth and let out a frustrated growl, "I don't have to take this from a fur ball such as yourself! You don't outrank me at all, you're just a lousy Major, means nothing! Get out of my sight, I have to speak to the Prophet of Truth, NOW!", he shouted, surprising his team with his tenacity.

The Jiralhanae let out a huff, then growled and made some gestures to smack the Unggoy down. Chakuth noticed, ducked and jumped aside, drew his plasma gun and released a charged bolt into the back of the alien's head.

The team drew their weapons to take on the rest of the Jiralhanae. Kahlanx had no weapons, he just had the thought of his brother on earth, most likely murdered by humans, he had only hatred as a weapon.

Enraged, he smashed his armoured hands on the head of a unsuspecting Jiralhanae, crushing the helmet the alien had, and fracturing it's skull. He roared, ready to take them on.

Calith and Vemeth had positioned themselves back against back and shot anything that came to close to them, while Miph did his backstabber strategy. Duthaz was glad he finally had the time to shoot some Jiralhanae, he had been long wanting to give the hairy monsters what they deserved.

As soon as the 6 ape-like aliens were eliminated, Chakuth turned towards his team, "Well, if you didn't believe me before, now is a good time to start believing…", he said dryly.

Duthaz rolled his eyes, "Let's just go talk to Truth…", he said as he walked towards the bulkhead to Truth's council.

At the door Kahlanx smashed the controls that held it shut from the other side with ease. He stared at the Sangheili, nodded and waited for his team to enter first. To their utmost surprise Truth was the only one that inhabited the room. He sat in his throne, staring out over the battles in space, which his fleet, of course, were winning. A faint grin overcame his face, then he turned around to face the team he had sent into it's death.

"Why have you returned here, what's the point…", he asked silently.

Chakuth stepped forwards, his face grim and his burning eyes fuelled with the renewed hatred for the 'Holy One'.

"Why, why did you send them into their deaths, and why did you send me and my friends there, you knew didn't you?! I have been faithful to you and the Covenant as long as I have memories, why dispose of me so suddenly?!", he shouted, his high pitched voice resonating through the empty chamber.

The grin on Truth's face faded, his arms crossed, "Heresy, that's why… Your kind has the habit to turn against the Covenant, and your leading capabilities are a threat to us. It's simple, one of your pesky kind stands up for your rights and the rest follow like mindless puppets. It has happened before, and it will not happen again, which is why I have decided that the Unggoy are no longer in service of the Covenant.".

Silence, the five Unggoy of Chakuth's team stared wide-eyed at their former Prophet, "So you're actually saying, that the Unggoy on this vessel are all gone…?", Chakuth asked. "No, merely locked away until further notice, we're not yet sure what to do with your kind.", Truth replied calmly.

"I can't believe this, all the Unggoy that were left behind on High Charity… all just condemned to their certain death by the Flood… and strangely enough there are no Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar or Yanme'e there… coincidental isn't it…", Chakuth said gritting his teeth.

"It's been all one big lie, it already was kind of suspicious that no one knew that there was a life threatening parasite on the sacred rings, that thousands of Unggoy died as cannon fodder, just because you high-and-mighty liars thought we served no better purpose!!", Chakuth shouted.

"I've been watching how my kind has suffered from the orders of the Prophets, how the Sangheili and Jiralhanae, and even the more useless Kig-Yar have been using and sacrificing us for 'the greater good'. Well enough of that, if you want to get rid of the Unggoy, that's your business, Truth. But I will not let my kind be locked away until further notice. You will find out how useful the Unggoy can be, just watch me!", he said as he turned around, pulled his Fuel Rod Gun off his back and hefted in onto his shoulder.

"Anyone with me…?", Chakuth said as he turned his head back at his team. Miph already stood next to him with his plasma pistol in his hand. Calith and Vemeth, with a slightly scared Denakh walked towards Chakuth, shaking their heads slightly.  
Kahlanx felt betrayed anyway, his brother had left him, he felt no obligations to the Prophets or Covenant for that matter, he slowly walked towards the small group of Unggoy, leaving Duthaz standing in front of Truth.

"You too, 'Kinomanee? Are you too leaving the Covenant?", Truth asked, not showing any signs of regret.

The Sangheili moved his bright orange eyes from the reflective floor to meet with Truth's eyes, "You have shoved my people aside, to make place for furry monkeys with no greater brain then that of the Yanme'e, yet you still want me to work for you?".

Truth's face showed no emotion, just a sly hand wave, then his throne descended further into the bowels of the ship. The silent honour guards stepped off the elevator plateau that had just descended and drew their weapons.

"Die, Heretics!", they shouted in unison.

----------

Xehn sat in a darkened room, his big hands placed on the ground. The pain he felt earlier from separating with his brother had gotten worse. His head hurt a bit and he had hoped the darkness would calm the pain.

"Humans, humans on our side… Us Lekgolo submitting our pride… it's awkward on it's least.", he held his head down, "Yet, we were forced to fight them… Fight or be extinct…".

He stared at his hands, "Though… these hands can crush a Prophet like a Yanme'e… why have we not tried…".

He clenched his hand and felt a hint of anger flow through his body, "Why… how could I live with the fact I have never even seen my home planet… How can I live with the fact that I've been born on a Covenant planetoid…", he rose, "Why am I doubting to bring them down…", he said with a low voice and walked out of the room.

The hall was filled with humans, they had to get used to the immense alien in the base, his strength was something that had cost numerous marines their lives. He was still young, but he had his fair share of human deaths.

'It's been enough… ', he said to himself as he pushed away some humans waiting in front of a bulkhead for clearance.

As he made his way through he found himself in the laboratory he had killed a human earlier. The female lab worker who had given him the translator worked here, he knew. She had her hands down on Covenant technology, "You, human!", he said as he noticed her standing over some computer monitors.

She looked at him, her green eyes priming at him, "I have a name you know, your kind is rather rude…", she said and looked back at the screen. Xehn clenched his fists again and growled softly, "The nerve…", he said as he walked closer, intentionally making the floor underneath her tremble.

"You're not intimidating me, Hunter.", she said dryly, not even looking at him while talking.

"Listen to me, human. I've decided to side with you now, and you just act like this in my presence, you have some nerve to not look at me while talking!", he stated, his voice lower then usual.

She turned towards him, pushed her glasses up and cocked an eyebrow, "Well, my, my, my… Such ego for such small of a brain. Enough tests have proven the human brain capacity to be at least twice the size of that of your kind. Don't make me laugh, and don't even try the 'rude' trick on me, it's not working.", she said and turned away from him.

He couldn't help but roar, charged towards her, and within a few unexpected seconds his big hands were gripped tightly around her fragile shoulders, "I don't lose my patience very often, but I guess this entire situation and this awful white light make me very uncomfortable. Listen to me, I need you… to give me some way to try and communicate with my kind within the Forerunner vessel, is that so hard for you to do for me? Or do you believe that my brain capacity doesn't understand 'Right Frequency' over 'Kill a human'?", his voice was cold, and had a very strict tone to it.

She knew, he was smarter then the average Lekgolo she had heard of on the field, and to annoy him more could result in a lot of damage. Not to her but certainly to her lab. "Fine, I'll get you something…", she said calmly as he winced from tight grip he had on her shoulders.

Xehn let her go, and rose carefully not to bump his head against the ceiling again, "Why do you doubt my intelligence…?", he asked quietly as she searched her data-pad.

"I don't really doubt your intelligence, it's just that your kind we have registered never really showed any significant battle strategy, but you're very different; not just in size and armour…", she said with her normal gentle voice.

"I'm a Behemoth class, bigger, stronger and bred for war alone… I have greater intelligence and had a different training. To put it simple, You had your Spartans, we have Behemoths…", he said as he looked around the room.

"I see… I'm learning so much from your team I couldn't dream of discovering from dead bodies…", she said and walked towards him.

He titled his head a bit, "I see…", he said calmly.

She smiled, "May I… please?", she asked and held a hand out to him.

"May you what, what do you want…", he asked her.

Before he had time to ask more her hand was pressed against his skin, carefully exploring his irregular skin pattern. "Amazing…", she said to herself.

Xehn felt horribly violated, "What's so amazing…", he said as he grabbed her arm and pushed her away from him.

She stared at him a bit shocked, then her face showed a glowing excitement, "The fact that you're not actually what we have speculated you to be. You're warm, you have a skin, it's not like a scaled cold skin like that of the Grunts, or a smooth hide like that of Elites and Jackals, I've never thought of your kind being as warm as you are…", she rattled.

Xehn felt a twitch, his hand, "What were you thinking…", he asked.

"There are theories about your kind consisting of worm like beings, that you were spineless and had no skin, but just a slimy membrane to prevent dehydration, and yes, we thought you were cold blooded…", she said and opened the bulkhead.

"Incompenten…", he felt her stare at him, shook his head slightly and followed her out of the room.

---------

Even though their resistance had taken quite the few Jiralhanae victims, they couldn't fight off a whole battalion of them. They had been imprisoned in the same block, no bars just a plasma field, deadly if touched. Chakuth sat close to the pulsating field and had his eyes cast down on the floor, his mind wasn't in the prison cell, but back on his home planet, in his beautiful swamp where he grew up.

Miph sat leaned against his friend, he was asleep, and Chakuth was always the one to serve as his pillow. He dreamt, Chakuth knew, occasionally he'd mutter some words about how good his skills were. It made the young Unggoy commander smile, his friend was quite the ego-tripper, but he was loyal to Chakuth and never let him down.

Chakuth inhaled and felt himself return to the prison he sat in, he stared at Kahlanx, who had settled himself in the farthest corner, he was quiet, he didn't move at all, almost as if he was dead. Duthaz 'Kinomanee was swearing, he had started swearing since they were locked away and hadn't stopped since. Even though Chakuth couldn't understand the Sangheili native language, he knew that the ex commander cursed, the tone alone was enough to identify the string of foul words the Sangheili muttered.

Denakh slept near Calith and Vemeth, who had talked about past war experiences. Even though it started like they would pick on the rookie Unggoy, they seemed to have taken him under their protection.

Chakuth smiled again, faintly, even though their future was grim and there was no way of breaking out of the cell they sat in, he didn't see the future as grim as it really was. He was learned by his father, a former Unggoy General, that giving up hope is like dying.

Kahlanx had his hands placed firm on the floor, occasionally his fist clenched and twitched, it felt like a forceful motion, but not something that came from his own body. He ignored it as much as he can, he had no intentions to think about a stupid spasm in his hand, it was his brother that mattered to him most. His brother was murdered by humans and he wanted to go back and show them that alone, Lekgolo could be just as lethal.

The sound of the doors opening at the end of the hall woke up Denakh, but Miph slept straight through it. Chakuth sat straight up and peered down the hall, where at least 6 Jiralhanae commanders waited for some sort of clearance. He narrowed his eyes, staring at the giant monkeys coming their way, 'Now what…', he thought as he carefully placed his friend on the floor and rose.

The highest ranking of the small group gave Chakuth a degrading stare, "Chakuth Zhetey, your and your team are found guilty by the council.".

"Guilty of what?!", Chakuth shouted.

"Guilty of heresy and siding up with the human race.", The Jiralhanae commander stated.

Duthaz rose, "What?! You have got to be kidding me!", he roared and walked closer to the force field, "Siding up with humans?! And just where did that bullshit originate from?!", he shouted, clearly very upset. The ape-like alien huffed a short laugh and signalled to shut down the plasma field.

As soon as the curtain of pulsating plasma was lifted, the Jiralhanae stepped inside and smashed the Sangheili to the ground with a single blow, "Justice has been served, split-chin… Take them to the execution chamber.", he said.

Chakuth fought as fierce as he could, but he had no chance against the massive monster that held his arms to tight. He looked back and saw how they had chained Kahlanx, their only hope, he had not even fought them and his head was contracted into his huge armour. All he could sense from the usually almost cheerful Lekgolo was pain and sorrow.

He had supposedly lead his team into heresy, and sided with the humans. He thought it over a few times and it became harder to understand every time it re-entered his mind.

'I'm so sorry… I'm so, so sorry…', was the mantra that repeated itself through his head. He wasn't sure who it was directed to exactly, but he could feel that, with every repeat of the sentence, his heart and body hurt more.

Miph hadn't spoken a word since he was ruthlessly dragged out of the cell, over the ground, and was later swung over one of the shoulders of the Jiralhanae. He couldn't stop thinking about Chakuth, and how it'd hurt for him to bear the responsibility of the deaths of his own friends. Usually only the Sangheili were forced into such trials, and he knew it was a lot of strain on the back of a young Unggoy with noble blood.

Even though Chakuth was able to keep his own given birth and family name, he knew it wasn't going to help him out of his current situation, like his father warned him once, _'There are some things, money and a high rank or noble family can't save you from.'_

The Jiralhanae commander tied Kahlanx down with thick chains and magnetic force fields, which stuck to the Lekgolo like glue. Kahlanx' mind was blank, he felt nothing, just his childhood memories with his older brother, even though there was a war waging at the time he was born he still had some remarkably happy memories.

He slowly lifted his head to face thousands of Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar and Yanme'e cheering, and shouting at them. Not even to think about the hundreds of minor Prophets, mocking their previous attempt to kill the demon, which only resulted into getting the human off the ship. 'No, this is not how I have planned myself to die… this is not how I want to meet my end…', he thought to himself as he burrowed his head in his armour again.

A pack of Jiralhanae Honour Guards walked forward, they had ornamental weapons, Chakuth figured they were going to be skewered. An old fashioned way, but horribly painful, and if done the right way, it'd take long to die too. He closed his eyes and inhaled, feeling his eyes burn, "It has been a pleasure to have been in the same team with you, you guys…", he said softly, hoping they didn't hear him.

Just when the spear of the Jiralhanae was about to penetrate Chakuth's scaled skin the bulkhead doors to the chamber got blown off. A huge flock of massive sized Lekgolo recycled their weapons, and the other division fired, killing the honour guards with their powerful weapons. Chakuth opened his eyes and saw how two Lekgolo had taken Truth as a hostage. "Release the prisoners, or Truth is going to be sorry he tamed my kind…", a heavy voice sounded, the Lekgolo representative and General, Zehkaz Gosu Lihx.

--------

_Hope you liked, I'm working on chapter 8, I hope to post it soon :) Please keep R&R-ing :D_


	8. Zealous Liberator

AN: Sorry this took so damn long, but I had a writer's block OO;;; to make it up, I'll add two chapters (:

Disclaimer: I no owney Halo XD... huuuu... All original characters are copyright to me.

**Chapter VIII – Zealous Liberator **

"Heresy!", the minor Prophets kept shouting as they were escorted to safety by the Jiralhanae.

"Stuff it…", Zehkaz said dryly as he stared at his bond-brother, then stared at Truth, who apparently wasn't scared at all.

"What do you hope to accomplish with this, Lekgolo. You'll never get off this ship.", he said quietly.

Zehkaz laughed softly and waited for the rescue-division to free Chakuth's team, "Don't worry Truth, we've got our way off.", he said as he pushed the end of his gun against Truth's fragile head. The Prophet narrowed his eyes and slightly winced at the cold steel of the weapon on his head.

Kahlanx looked at the leader of his kind, Zehkaz was almost a head taller than his brother Xehn, he had a reputation for being relentless and very strict. But Kahlanx knew him better then most Lekgolo, he was trained by him. As he rose from the ground he stared at the Unggoy and waited for their release.

Chakuth rubbed his wrists and stared at their saviours, all Behemoth classed Lekgolo, bigger, stronger and smarter then the usual breed. He smiled, thinking back to the short time spent in the prison, and the hope he never really gave up. He saw how the commander of the group communicated with Kahlanx and guided them away from the room.

The halls were total chaos, there were Kig-Yar and Yanme'e everywhere, they were in panic and occasionally got stepped on by one of the passing by Lekgolo.

They ran towards the hangar of the Forerunner vessel, and even though they didn't run very fast, every step they placed on the metal of the ship shook the ground and was a potential danger for everything that walked in their way.  
After running past several parallel hallways they met up with an enormous group of Unggoy and more Lekgolo, they had been freed from their prisons and were also escorted off the ship. Duthaz stared around, he noticed that also a small group of Sangheili accompanied them, he felt a grin cross his face as he met up with a few of his old team mates.

The leader of the rescue division was Zehkaz' brother Ghazad Zhun Lihx, he wasn't as strong and tall as his brother but he had the intelligent side of the share, being the tactical genius of his bloodline he had a neck for rescue operations and leaded it for that reason.

"Xodus, take them to the ship.", he said to his bond brother and stopped, "We're being followed…", he said and signalled a few other Lekgolo to help him fight off the flock of Jiralhanae honour guards.

Ghazad charged his cannon and blasted right through the ornamental armour the head Jiralhanae wore. He growled and brought up his shield, charging it again.

The two other Lekgolo fired at the same time in a cross pattern, hitting the flanks of the group. "Make sure none of them follow, then clear a path for Zehkaz to follow!".

Chakuth was pushed forward with a group of Unggoy into an elevator, the chaos in the halls of the Forerunner ship confused him, and it had seemed he was suddenly regrouped with at least 100 other Unggoy on a cargo elevator to the hangar. He knew it was up to him to lead them in an orderly fashion to whatever ship the Lekgolo planned on taking them out with.  
He stared at Kahlanx' head as the elevator slowly went down and swore he saw a pair of blue-green coloured eyes staring right back at him. The Unggoy blinked, and held his hand up to him, waving a bit.

The elevator ride was horribly long and it took much to long for most of the Unggoy, who had gotten nervous.

Chakuth had no idea how far the elevator reached down, it was as if the surrounding they were in wasn't even part of the ancient ship anymore. It looked a lot different. But he was very sure that they were still on the Forerunner ship, it didn't really look like any Covenant material either. Then the dense material that surrounded the elevator shaft made place for glass, and an enormous hangar came into view.

Chakuth looked down, and to his amazement he saw an enormous CCS classed cruiser, docked up with by some sort of funnel. He had never seen anything like it before, and it couldn't stop amazing him. Around the ship Sangheili in armours suited for space, operated and steadied the funnel attached to the end of the elevator.  
As soon as the elevator had touched with the ground of the hangar Chakuth stepped into the funnel and turned back to face the other Unggoy.

"Okay brethren, please… no running or shoving, walk in an orderly fashion!", he said as he walked forward through the dimly lit space. Against his expectations it was quite big, Lekgolo could also fit through it, which was a reassuring thought.

When he set foot on harder ground than the material in the funnel, he stared around, the hallways of the cruiser were very luxurious and beautifully lit with dimmed purple-blue light. The floor was so clean he saw his reflection in it, the only thing he wondered was why it hadn't been used in battle. It seemed like it was a battle cruiser and not just any, but a very good and big one.

A Sangheili walked up to Chakuth giving him a crisp nod, "Chakuth Zhetey, I welcome you aboard the _Zealous Liberator_.".

Chakuth frowned, "_Zealous Liberator_…? I've never heard of that name in the Covenant fleet…", he said while a few more Sangheili walked up to him to guide the other Unggoy inside the ship and to their departments.

The Gold armoured Elite grinned faintly, "It must be because this is not a Covenant cruiser, it's a Sangheili craft, named after it's destined purpose. And here I stand on the finest ship the Sangheili have built, on it's way to liberate us from the greedy hands of the Prophets.". He turned around, "Please follow me to the bridge.", he said. Chakuth nodded and left the guiding of the Unggoy to the team of Sangheili.

"This ship is indeed anything better then I've seen before.", Chakuth said, "So it was built for the purpose of liberating the Sangheili from the Prophets?", he asked.

The Sangheili guiding him seemed to be the shipmaster, "No, actually it was built in order of a general in service of the Covenant armada.", he said entering the bridge of the ship.

"A general? Who was it?", Chakuth asked while staring around at the crew of the _Zealous Liberator_, all of them were Sangheili.

The shipmaster walked up the slope to the higher part of the bridge and stared onto the holographic map. "It was General Charam Ikuda Zhetey, your father if I'm not mistaken.", the way the Sangheili brought it was so dry, it made Chakuth shiver.

"My father had this ship built! Why?", Chakuth asked, completely dumbfounded.

The Sangheili turned around and faced him with his hands on his back, "I can understand your disbelief and confusion Chakuth, but let me explain.", he started.

"General Charam lead the Unggoy forces back in the times when you were still on your home planet enjoying your childhood. He believed in a prophecy, one that held a very charismatic Unggoy, who will eventually free the Unggoy from the slavery of the Covenant and it's Prophets.".

"I met him when we were put together on one team. He lead a very talented group of Unggoy. One very unfaithful day, we fought in a battle we were doomed to lose, but Charam just didn't gave up. He continued fighting, even saved my life… Although it was at the cost of his. After I dragged him to safety, after I said I wanted to repay the debt I had for being saved by him, he made me promise something.", he said.

Chakuth listened intensely, he was never told how his father died exactly, just that he was shot by someone.

"He made me promise to make sure the Unggoy of the Prophecy he always spoke of got the help he needed to free the Unggoy race. I always thought Charam was the Unggoy of the prophecy, he was such an amazing leader and a little of a father figure to the younger Unggoy of his team. He was an incredible soldier… The last things he muttered were _'Save Chakuth, please help him with his journey.'._ I thought he was just delirious, then I heard he had a son named Chakuth. At that time I realized what I had to do. And here I stand, in front of the High Commander of the Unggoy. Which is funny, because there are no generals left, meaning you are the only classified as one.", he spoke.

Chakuth's eyes widened, "Me?", he shouted in surprise.

The shipmaster grinned, "I have vowed to save you Chakuth, I have also promised your father to help you with your journey. That means that this ship is under your command.". he added to it.

"I ehm…", Chakuth started, he decided against finishing the sentence and softly bit his tongue.

"I guess it's still hard to believe for you, it's okay you will get used to it eventually.", the Sangheili spoke, "My name is Akena 'Anumee, this ship's master. But you will be in charge of the ship. I just make sure we get were we want to get.".

Kahlanx set foot into the _Zealous Liberator_ the first thing he noticed was how good the ship was put together. It was certainly a very luxurious ship and well armed too. He was followed by a group of other Lekgolo as they were guided to the aft section of the ship. The Sangheili had told them that was the best place for Lekgolo to reside due to it's size of chambers.

He had heard a few Lekgolo talk about him but ignored it so far. It was insignificant chatter he didn't care about.

As he looked around the spacious room he stood in, he suddenly remembered a mission he and Xehn had been sent on. It also included a long travel on battle cruisers like the _Zealous Liberator_. He sighed, 'No more missions with Xehn…', he thought and sat down somewhere far away from the rest of the Lekgolo.  
He listened to their conversations, to how they spoke over the rescue operation from Truth's grasp. Then the word Xehn came by and Kahlanx was immediately interested, "What about Xehn…", he asked.

"They say you're the Bond-Brother of Xehn Huth Kuthan… Is that true?", one asked.

Kahlanx signed, "Yeah I was, I am also more then just his bond brother, I'm also his biological brother.", He said staring at the ground.

The conversations died out, the Lekgolo that stood in the room stared at Kahlanx quietly.

"You were his brother? Do you mean he is dead?", one asked.

Kahlanx stared at him, "The humans killed him.", he said quietly as more Lekgolo walked into the room.

"Killed by humans!", a heavy voice sounded, "You have no faith in your brother whatsoever, now do you…?". Zehkaz walked towards Kahlanx, "Xehn can't be dead.". He stated dryly.  
Kahlanx looked up at him, "What do you mean by that…", he asked.

"I mean, Xehn is not dead.", he said placing a hand on Kahlanx' shoulder. "How do you know he's not dead?", Kahlanx asked.

"That's easy young Kahlanx, I was called by him to form an alliance with the human race. Then I learned you were supposed to be back on the ship by that time. And I heard from some informants that you were held captive and sentenced for execution. In any way, your brother is still alive.", he said.

Kahlanx let out a sigh of relief, he felt the weight on his shoulders drop off and suddenly he could breathe normally again.

A sudden jerk in movement almost buckled over a few of the Lekgolo, the dark insides of the Forerunner ship replaced themselves for the broad space and the battered earth. Kahlanx stared at the human home planet, 'This war has to stop…', he thought as he watched how the once azure blue planet came closer into view.  
Zehkaz stared at Kahlanx, then at his own brother, 'You're lucky to have been teamed up with your own biological brother Kahlanx, it makes working together so much more easy.', he spoke to himself.

Chakuth stared how Akena piloted the ship out of the hangar of the forerunner ship, accurate 3 dimensional images formed a map of their surroundings.

It was the only way for the ship to navigate, the bridge of the ship was in the middle of the ship, it had no windows, just a 3D star-map that showed everything it needed too.

The young Unggoy found it interesting how the vessel moved quite manoeuvrable regardless of it's size. Akena didn't speak a word, he was to fixed on the controls trying to get the to the planet as fast as it could. Chakuth stared at the Navigational board, a Sangheili sat behind it, he had blue armour, obviously a rookie.

He walked towards the Sangheili, "May I please…?", he proposed as he pointed at the board.

The Sangheili stared at him and nodded, "Go ahead.", he spoke quietly.

Chakuth stared at the board and took a closer look on the earth, homing in on the base they were sent to earlier.

He typed in the coordinates and sent them to Akena's controls, "Fly there, someone is waiting for us there… Besides, if we're gonna side up with the humans, the person to speak about it is there too.".

End Note: I know, it's a short chapter, but at least it explains a little about Chakuth's heritage. but dun worry, he will get his own chapter (:.


	9. The Kuthan Brothers

AN: Ok, second try, as FF is rather annoying, please ignore any spelling errors for now, I'll replace this chap with a better version soon XX anyway, enjoy, for now :P

Dislaimer: Halo no mine, Chars are (:

**Chapter IX – The Kuthan Brothers**

"No, I don't want to play with you Kahlanx…", Xehn said as he pushed his younger brother away from him. The infant Lekgolo tumbled over and fell on the hard iron ground. A cry of pain filled Xehn's being as he growled at his younger brother, "You're such a cry baby, can't you take any pain? You will never be a strong warrior with that mentality Kahlanx, stand up and stop crying, it's pathetic.", his voice was cold as he turned around and walked away.

Kahlanx tried to stand up, he knew he could but he didn't feel like it, he wanted his brother to know he hurt him. Another uncontrolled cry, the youngster hadn't learned to talk yet. Xehn turned around, he was already old enough to wear an armour his size. Even though he was armoured enough, his teal coloured eyes primed at his younger brother, "What do you think you're doing… Get up.", he said.

Kahlanx held out his hand at his brother, silent wails sounded from the throat of the young un armoured Lekgolo, "Xehn.", it sounded through the soft cries.

Xehn's iron stare softened, the first thing he learned wasn't the name of his father, but his own. "Fine…", he whispered and walked back to take Kahlanx' hand, pulled him up gently and walked into the city.

He and his brother were born in the Holy City of High Charity, he knew he was born into slavery, into serving the Covenant until his dying breath. But as he saw the shining eyes of his brother he'd rather forget that he never saw the planet his race originated from. He and his brother were left alone after their father died, Xehn knew that he could grow up on his own, that he didn't need someone to look up to, but when he heard the news it hurt him more then he had imagined.

Kahlanx was to small to understand at that time, he couldn't even see and hear when it happened and the young Lekgolo's fate lay entirely in the hands of his bigger brother. Xehn never minded to raise and take care of his brother until he reached the age he was in now, he needed a lot of attention and wanted to be entertained at all times.

Regardless of the annoyance the infant brought him, he never thought of handing the task to someone more qualified. He stared at Kahlanx as he walked into the Lekgolo quarters, he noticed how the child wanted nothing more then to run off and disappear into the crowd of Lekgolo to play with all of them.

Xehn sighed and pulled his brother back and pushed him closer towards him as he walked into the crowd. He never thought about the fact that the quarters he lived in was like a little city on it's own. It had it's own cultural essence, and it provided the shelter his race needed if not out to fight the humans.

Even though there was a war waging, it was not readable from the ambience in his small world.

"Impressive, he grew quite a lot the last few units.", Xehn's friend said as he patted the armoured head of the young Kahlanx. "I grew faster then Xehn, and now he's jealous about it.", Kahlanx bloated and ran off.

Xurru shook his head and watched how the youngster ran off, "You're still gonna be the taller of the two Xehn, you're older.", Xurru joked and poked Xehn's side.

"I'm not Jealous of that brat, I will never be. If only I could calm him down a little, it seems that he's on hyperactive mode ever since he got that armour. It looks stupid on him, it's to big.", Xehn said quietly.

His friend laughed and placed his hand on his shoulder, "Just wait until he's older, he'll be a great warrior, we've all had our hyperactive days.".

Xehn stared at Xurru, "Actually, I didn't have those days…", he said and stared how Kahlanx tried to throw over some crates.

"You're different.", Xurru said quietly and tilted his head a little.

A loud clang echoed though the area, the sound of metal objects clashing with each other. Kahlanx' shield against Xehn's, sparks flew off the metal as Xehn's overwhelming strength pushed the younger Lekgolo against the ground.

"You're not gonna win this Kahlanx.", Xehn said as he easily held his brother on one place.

"We'll see…", Kahlanx' Matured voice sounded, he had grown so fast Xehn had lost track of the once so fragile creature, to him his brother was still the baby Lekgolo he had first set eyes on when he was born.

Thinking about this was the only error he made, his brother took the little time he was off guard and threw him over. Xehn felt the ground impact on his back, winced a little and was up before Kahlanx thought was even possible.

Xehn knew that took most of Kahlanx' strength and forced the younger Lekgolo back and further down onto the ground with ease.

"You're only strong when nobody's looking, that's sad Kahlanx…", Xehn's dark voice spoke. Kahlanx stared at him, he had no obligations for replying to him.

It remained silent for a minute, then Xehn got off his brother and rose to his full length. Kahlanx stared at him, a mischievous stare, "Man you weight to much, ever considered going on a diet?", he said then let out a strange cackle.

Xehn primed his death stare at his brother, let out a loud roar and started running towards him.

Kahlanx couldn't stop laughing and tried to get up, his plan was to run away but it didn't seem to work. His brother's shoulder clashed against the plate armour on his chest. The impact made him gasp for air but didn't stop him from laughing at his much stronger and older brother.

"You're such a stiff prick! Loosen up for once in you life!", Kahlanx said as he tried to get up and his cackle had faded away into the distance.

Xehn stared at him, Kahlanx had never been this close to his brother, and it scared him. "Can you get off now? Or I'll do something… so horrible… that you'll be sorry you jumped on me for the rest of your life.", Kahlanx threatened.

Xehn huffed, his eyes narrowed, "Like what… huh?", he spoke.

"Don't make me do this Xehn…", Kahlanx said, restraining the urge to laugh again.

"I'm not afraid of you little brat.", Xehn stated and pushed his weight onto Kahlanx' body.

"Okay, now you've done it, prepare for humiliation!", The younger Lekgolo shouted and brought his head near Xehn's.

It happened to fast for Xehn to do anything about it. He shivered, then he felt his body go numb for a second.

His first reaction was to get off Kahlanx as fast as he could and sit in a corner being disgusted about it, he didn't, "You… YOU… Licked me!", he shouted scratched the orange skin where his own brother's tongue passed earlier.

"I told you, back off I've got more backstabbing moves than you and I'm not afraid to use any of them. ", Kahlanx said defiantly, rose and crossed his arms.

"You're disgusting…", Xehn said and rose as well, "If you need me, I'll be cleaning myself for the next 24 hours…", he said and walked off.

"It's not like I carry some deadly disease you know!", Kahlanx shouted and watched him disappear behind the gates of their quarters.

"Bah, so lame, if I ever get paired up with him, I'll commit suicide…", he said and walked in the opposite direction of his brother.

Zehkaz stared at the two brothers, "Stand up straight you two, what kind of pathetic show is this…?", his voice sounded agitated, but the Kuthan brothers weren't about to work along. "I'm not working with this guy.", Kahlanx said and turned his head away.

Zehkaz stared at him, "And who said you even had a choice, huh? I certainly didn't!", he said and grabbed his shoulders, placing him next to Xehn and his friends.

"There we go, you're brothers, learn to work together!", he said and turned around, walking away from the small team of four Lekgolo.

Xehn eyed his younger brother, he said nothing, and faced his friends again.

Zehkaz turned to face the five groups of young Lekgolo, "Well, your mission is to retrieve this piece of rock, within the given time. The first group to achieve this will be the winner and get a head start in the next training. But don't think that head start will give you any big advantages. Winning should be an honour.".

The Lekgolo general held up a purple glowing piece of crystal. "This crystal, this is what you will protect with your lives against the villains, which will be three groups of you. Group four, two and five are the bad guys, you're not representing anyone, you're just going to show me how good you are in protecting something very important, it's another aspect of your training. Group one and three will do their very best to retrieve the crystal from the other groups. The three villain groups will have to work together to keep the two rivalling retrieval groups away from that crystal. You have 24 units to get the crystal, if the crystal is not brought to me within this time span, I will pick the best team-working group out of the villain gang. Is this clear?", he asked.

The team of Lekgolo all shouted _'yes'_ in unison, then stood up straight.

Zehkaz eyed them , "Alright, team four, two and five, step forward.", he said and waited for the three teams to stand before him.

"Guard it with your life.", he said as he handed it over to the leader of team five.

"I will sir.", he replied.

"Team one, step forward.", he said as Xehn's rivalling team walked towards their trainer and leader of their kind.

"Your weapons will not include real Fuel Rod Cannons, but instead a variant that shoots a sticky coloured patch, once you get hit with it, you're out of the match, understood?".

He handed over the arm mounted patch guns and called forth Xehn's team. Zehkaz eyed the young but capable leader and patted his armour, "Go for it.".

Xehn stared at him and nodded a bit, then turned to his team and walked past them attaching the gun to his right arm.

Kahlanx was excited, he never been to a real training mission before, he almost hopped to Zehkaz to get the gun.

Zehkaz stared at Kahlanx for a while, "Be careful…", he said and handed Kahlanx the gun. The young Lekgolo hadn't expected it to be so heavy and took his time to mount the gun to his arm. They were ready to go.

"Be quiet!", Xehn hissed and pushed Kahlanx' head into his armour. The young Lekgolo let out a muffled growl and pushed his brother's hand away.

"Stop it! I know what I'm doing!", he whispered and lifted the gun off the ground.

Xurru crouched towards Xehn, "What are they doing?", he asked and carefully pushed the thick leaves to look at the three groups guarding the crystal.

"I don't know, it seems as if they're fighting over something…", Xehn said and stared at the timer on his forearm, "Six units left, we have to hurry or we wont make it back to Zehkaz.", he added to it and stared at the rest of his team.

Kahlanx stared around, he was anxious to shoot them down, grab the crystal and run off, back to Zehkaz to show he was the fastest, yet he knew that would absolutely cost him his head.

Xurru sat down, "Six units, that should be enough right?", he whispered at Xehn who was still observing the quarrelling protectors.

"It took us seven and a half to only get here…", he said, absently.

Xurru's team mate Garrex shuffled around, "We're never going to make it if we sit here all the time.", he said impatiently.

Xehn eyed him, "Be quiet, I think I have an idea…", he whispered and pointed at the fighting groups.

"One thing is for sure, they will not be paying attention fighting like this. Meaning it should be extra easy to grab it, if you're fast enough. Good thing Kahlanx here, our shrimp, is faster then any Lekgolo I know…", he said staring at his brother, mocking him a bit.

Kahlanx huffed and gave him a little push, "Shut up!", he whispered.

Xehn turned to face his team and drew their situation in the dirt with his clawed finger, "Okay, this is our situation." he pointed at four dots behind a wobbly line, across them the three other groups, "We have to flank them, they're so preoccupied with fighting it should be a piece of cake.", he drew the manoeuvre in the dirt.

"All right, Kahlanx, I know you hate me, but this is your job, we will have to shoot them, you have to run like hell… Get the crystal and run back to Zehkaz.", he said, staring at his brother.

Kahlanx stared back at his brother, feeling important, "No problem, should be a piece of cake.", he said, holding up his hand.

Xurru stared at Xehn, "But is he fast enough to run back to Zehkaz within the given time we have. One thing is for sure, if he doesn't make it, the defenders wont get any points at all, they just fight.", he stared at them.

Xehn sighed, "He will be fast enough, I know he will, won't you Kahlanx?", he gave him a priming stare.

Kahlanx stared back, "Don't worry okay, just don't get me shot.", he said.

Xehn narrowed his eyes, "Yes, well. The more time we spend here the less time he has to run back, let's go.", he said and signalled Xurru and his partner to go to the right side of the quarrelling group of defenders.

Xehn inhaled, 'Okay, this is it...', he thought, and waited for the right moment to strike, He signalled to Xurru and Garrex, to go to the other side of the group.

He narrowed his eyes, "Now... or never...", he whispered, digged his armored boot into the dirt, and pushed his weight of the grouns, out of the bushes.

He ran straight at them, while staring at the other two teammates run at them from other directions.

"Now!", Xehn screamed, and held op the Patchgun mounted on his arm. His first shot was a direct hit, the force of the gun blew the Lekgolo it hit over, Xehn was surprised.

He saw how Xurru and Garrex both shot two others too.

"Was that supposed to happen!", Xehn cried out, and stared at how the rest of the group gathered around the three fallen Lekgolo.

The leader of the defender's group, Ghanek, turned to Xehn furiously, "What kind of gun did you use?", he shouted as he pointed at the cracked chest armor on the Lekgolo Xehn shot.

"The patchguns that Zehkaz gave us, the same you are carrying, what else!", Xehn replied.

He didn't even feel the sticky substance hit his armor, He bent his head down to take a look at the red colored glue on his armor, then stared back at the groupleader.

"Explain that, hero.", he said and dismounted the weapon off his arm and kneeled next to his fallen teammate.

Xehn growled, "You think we did this on purpose don't you!", he said and walked towards the much smaller Ghanek. The other Lekgolo all made way for the reknown Xehn and his unnatural physical power.

Ghanek stood his ground, he wasn't about to be shown who's boss by a supposedly stronger show-off.

"Why yes, I do think you did it on purpose, you have a reputation to hold high, don't you. I'd be totally you to just cheat in order to get what you want. And that while you are of noble blood, Amazing!", Ghanek said.

Kahlanx stared at them, then at the crystal, 'I can still make it... but I can't let them fight here either...', he thought and stared at the ground.

He stared back at the his brother and the leader of the defender's group, he sighed, "What would Zehkaz do at a moment like this...", he said to himself and closed his eyes.

"Take it back...", Xehn gowled, towering above the smaller insulter, "Take it back or I'll have to force you to...", his voice dark.

Ghanek smiled to himself, "Force me? You, the hero and rolemodel of many, would force a smaller and younger Lekgolo such as me, to force and take back the truth? How amusing, but I don't think so.", he said defiantly as he heard the Lekgolo behind him talk about the consequences of Xehn's anger.

"I'm asking you, I will only ask you once... Will you take back what you just said about me?", Xehn tried, but it still sounded like a threat.

Ghenak shook his head, "No, I'm actually interesed in your 'supreme' power.", he said mocking Xehn.

The taller Lekgolo growled, the air around them vibrating from the rage built up in his veins.

"Fine!", Xehn said and his hand shot out to reach Ghenak's fragile neck, "Last chance... shorty...", he whispered and bpulled him close to his own head.

Ghanek felt Xehn's three clawed fingers clutch around his neck, as he felt a panic attack brew up from air depriving. The other Lekgolo stared at them in awe as they feared for Ghenak's life.

Ghenak felt the delusional feeling flutter to his head as he struggled to free himself from Xehn's iron grip. "L-let...go...", he said as he dug his claws into Xehn's hand in a last act of desperation.

"Take it back.", Xehn said again, and fixated his Pale blue eyes on Ghanek's green ones.

Ghanek's eyes fluttered shut, he felt his consiousness slip away as the firm hands pressed themselves deeper into the thick orange flesh.

"Xehn, stop it!", Kahlanx cried out and ran out of the bushes, pushing away some cheering bystanders.

The taller Lekgolo growled, losing the controll he had over his calm self, while his younger brother pulled his arm. The bystanding Lekgolo provoked thee fight by cheering for either of the sides, it was personal and Xehn knew it.

His hand clutched Ghanek's neck tighter, and gagging sounds could be heard, "Take it back, while you still can.", he grunted.

"Enough Xehn, you'll kill him!", Kahlanx shouted and pulled as hard as he could.

Xehn huffed and used the arm Kahlanx hung from to bash his brother away, not noticing the reflex he had with his other arm. As Kahlanx hit the ground, the cheering seemed to fill the surroudings, and Xehn returned back to the struggle.

A lifeless form hanging from his almost completely clenched fist.

As his hand opened, and Ghanek's armoured body hit the ground, the bystanders grew silent. Xehn, the rolemodel of many, had killed a much smaller and less strong Lekgolo with one hand, hit his own brother away with the other.

Kahlanx ran a hand over his neck, it hurt, and it was meant this time.

He was shocked by the moisture running down his neck into the armor that he wore, 'Xehn...', he whispered to himself as he stood up slowly.

His body ached, not just physical pain, but also the pain that the entire scene had caused him mentally, his own brother, the one he trusted for his whole life, had just murdered someone.

Xehn felt a strange tingle in his hands, it burned a little and the image of the lifeless Ghanek didn't make it feel any better.

He watched how two other Lekgolo kneeled down by him and confirmed his crime, he had single handedly killed another Lekgolo, over a little bickering of name.

Was that how he was to go through life, as Xehn the murderer?

'No... that is not me, not who I am, not the one I want to be...', he thought to himself as he winced to the pain forming in his head.

He stared around, and the empty space they stood in seemed horribly claustrofobic, the others, standing on eachother like ants, his smaller brother, his trust damaged.

"This is not who I am!", he suddenly shouted outloud, his voice rising above the unruly and fearfull crowd.

The silence that followed sounded like a cacophony of immense noise, and it hurted more then any plasmagun could ever hurt.

The first step was painfull, the second more. He ran as far as he could, as fast as he could. Away from that which he had done, that which he had commited.

Kahlanx watched as Xehn ran away from the rest, he wanted to follow him, but his stomache ached, his head hurt and he felt the urge to throw up.

Still he placed his hands firm on the ground and pushed himself up, "Take Ghenak to Zehkaz, please... Tell him what happened, I will go after Xehn.", he said to Xurru and walked into the direction Xehn went.

Xurru nodded, and stared back at Ghenak and the rest of the defender's group, he felt a strange emotion pass him by, he had never expected to see the most respected friend in his life to do such a thing.

It confused him, and as soon as he could shake the horrible feeling of confusion he rose to find his bond-brother to make the walk back to Zehkaz.

Kahlanx stared around the darkened forest, the artificial day simulator had obviously gone into a nighttime status, and it made things a lot harder.

"Xehn?", he spoke silently, staring around to find his lost brother, "Xehn, please, where are you? Answer me, please!", he said out loud this time, hoping for any kind of reply.

"Xehn... please...", Kahlanx sighed and sat down against a tree, "I won't blame you for anything...", he said and stared up the simulated night sky.

He was disturbed by a loud roar from the direction of the small lake. He immediatly shot up and ran towards the direction of the sound, finding his brother sitting at the lake.

He stared at him, he didn't know him this way. He took a deep breath and walked closer to the figure that he once knew as his proud brother.

"Xehn...", he said carefully not to scare him, and placed his hand on his brother's shoulder.

No reply, he had expected as much and just sat down against his brother, his back against the much bigger Lekgolo's back.

He exhaled, and stared up again, "It's pretty damn amazing isn't it...?", he started, referring to the sky above them.

No reply again, expected though.

He swallowed, finding it hard to talk with his brother at moments like this, then again, he couldn't remember he ever had a good conversation with his brother.

Instead he just leaned backwards, placing his head on his shoulder, closing his eyes and trying to find a peacefull moment together with his brother, not the one who just killed someone.

"I don't blame you at all...", Kahlanx suddenly said, turning around and positioning himself next to his brother. Xehn's eyes were closed, Kahlanx didn't even notice it, but when they opened and stared at him, he felt the irresistable urge to look back.

"How come you forgive me for something like that...?", it suddenly sounded, and Kahlanx couldn't have felt more happy to hear his brother's dark voice.

Kahlanx's eyes turned slightly sad, still a bit shocked by the odd situation, then wrapped his arms around his brother and leaned onto him, "Because you and I... we're the same, we can never be separated... And I could never go on if you weren't around to protect me...", he whispered, feeling a bit vulnerable to Xehn's usual harsh comments. "Thanks...", it sounded from Xehn, the most powerfull answer Kahlanx ever heard from his brother. It moved him, and the moment became more powerfull as he felt Xehn's arms around him too. "Don't worry Kahlanx, I'll be there for you... Always."

Xehn stood at attention, Zehkaz was so silent it scared him, "I can't believe this happened... you murdered someone.", he said quietly after a long pause.

The young Lekgolo noticed how his trainer's eyes focussed on his as he stood before him. His bodysize had always intimidated him.

"What should I do with you, should you pass or be thrown in front of the high council of the prophets... I don't know, I had not expected something like this from my most anticipated student.", he said and turned his back on him.

Xehn inhaled the stale air of the room they stood in and closed his eyes slowly, "I'm willing to accept exile, as long as my younger brother's training and social life will not be affected by my actions.", he said calmly.

Zehkaz turned around and stared at the unusual infant, "Xehn, please...",he said and placed his hand on the unarmoured shoulders of the child, "You're not even adult yet, had you not been part of this project you'd still be playing in the fields of our planet. Of all people, you should know I'm the one that understands your actions. Bred from a noble family, high status and a reputation many would dream off. Everyone falls off their cloud sometime.", he said and cocked his head slightly.

The young Lekgolo stared at the strongest of his kind, confused and defeated by his stirring emotions.

"I will not let this pass by unnoticed, but I will note this as an accident, as I have heard from your teammates and the bystanders, who actually did nothing to stop you from harming Ghanek. Foolish and childish as your act was, there is no reason in banning the most potentional student of this project. No, Xehn, they will know, and they will learn to accept you the way you are and will become. I will not give you a better treatment, I merely try to understand the situation from your point of view.", he added to it.

Xehn felt relieved, his mind was so set and prepared for the worst he had allready imagined himself chained to the wall of shame, "Thank you sir...", he murmured and stepped back.

Zehkaz eyed him one last time, "Learn from your mistakes, and you will definately get as far as I have.", he said in a gentle manner, then turned his back towards him again, "Dismissed.", he said.

Kahlanx ran as fast as he could, and run fast he could, "I can't believe this!", he shouted though his panting as he tried to reach the square as fast as he could.

He saw as the crowd appeared in his line of sight, "Did it start yet...?", he asked himself outloud as he made his way through the crowds.

Xehn felt a tug to his arm as he noticed his smaller brother stood next to him suddenly, "Hey what took you so long.", he laughed a bit.

"Appearantly someone forgot to wake me up...", he said, obviously agitated a bit with his brother.

"Oh come on, little shrimp. Off into the real world we go after this, be glad!", he said.

Kahlanx couldn't be happy about it, because of his brother's awesome and unnaturally high scores he was dragged out of his childhood into early training. He saw it as a priviledge and a curse at the same time.

"It's been a full cycle since the accident Xehn had with Ghanek, and his family has had time enough to mourn about the loss of a young warrior, but time apearantly moved on for the most popular Lekgolo among us.", Zehkaz said with proud as he called up Xehn onto the stage.

"I present to you, the hope of the future, the result of a succesful project!", he said as he held Xehn's adolescent hand up int the air.

He was a head smaller then Zehkaz, but most likely, physically just as strong and still growing. Xehn was proud, it was his graduation day and he and his brother and friends would be set free into the real world of war, to kill humans and prove the Lekgolo worth in the Covenant caste.

As soon as the project was explained they were assigned into groups, and to Kahlanx it couldn't take short enough for him to hear with whom he was paired.

Zehkaz was handed a holopad with the next data on it, he held it up and read it outloud, "Xehn Kuthan, Kahlanx Kuthan, you two are paired together and have been given 'Huth' as your bond name. Xehn and Kahlanx Huth Kuthan, the only pair who's bondbrother are actually biological brothers as well. We're expecting miracles from you.", he said as he watched how the two walked up the stage and were cheered at by the crowds.

Xehn felt his ego boosted, Kahlanx felt he had to throw up.

"Congratulations, for you two will be assigned to the High Charity's Lekgolo quarters, on hold for the Forerunner ship to depart. Good luck with your missions untill that time.

Xehn huffed a 'yes' and walked off the stage for their honorary armouring and firearms. Kahlanx followed his brother, still sick to the stomach and light in the head, he never imagined the strain laid upon his shoulders would be this big.

They were the hope of the Behemoth project.

* * *

EN: Ugh, as I said, good version will follow Xx; 


	10. Deus Ex Machina

_AN: So sorry it took so long for this chappy, but WoW is so damn addictive :P... XD  
This chappie might have a whole new surprise for most readers, and I might dedicate something more to it but we'll see X3 Have fun!_

**Chapter X – Deus Ex Machina**

Akena's face looked grim, Chakuth noticed, 'Why are they even trying...?', he thought to himself as he watched the red dots on the holomap. Seraph Fighters, obviously, Chakuth knew. He stared back at his navigation board and sighed to himself recalculating their entry trajectory with every change of course.

He wondered why Akena didn't use the many plasma turrets the _Zealous Liberator_ had. He bit his lip and closed his eyes, thinking of the sudden hardships that were placed on his small shoulders, 'General... I don't know if I can do that, I'm only 19, not ready for such intense responsibilies. I can't lead my kind out of the slavery, I just can't...', he thought and stared absently at the many trajectories he had allready tried.

The jerk to the ship meant they entered the atmosphere, to his surprise Chakuth heard the Sangheili aboard cheer.

He stared around, his eyes immediatly priming on the yellow dots flocking around the red ones and eliminating them, one by one.

"The humans?", he asked Akena as he turned finished typing the new trajectory.

"Most likely, after they destroyed the first red dot, they became yellow.", he smiled and steered the ship into Chakuth's directions.

Kahlanx stared at his hands on the thick windows that revealed the earth's battered surface. His mind was set on one thing, his brother, the only thing he could never get out of his mind. He thought back of the days he was picked on by Xehn and his friends and closed his eyes thoughtfully, feeling an inner smile.  
The hand on his shoulder startled him, he looked back, and to his surprise, Xurru and Garrex stood before him.

"Hey Kahlanx, awesome armour you got there!", he said as he cocked his head to the side, a friendly gesture.

"Xurru! Garrex, I can't believe it, you're still alive!", he shouted and grabbed Xurru's hand. Garrex laughed and Xurru patted Kahlanx' head.

"Man, that's been a long time, hasn't it, how's Xehn anyway? Is he ok?", Xurru asked.

Kahlanx tried not to think of the pain it caused him to divide from his brother, "Well, he's with the humans right now. We'll rendevouz with him as soon as we landed.", Kahlanx said.

Garrex nodded, "That's great news, so why the fancy goldtrimmed armour Kahlanx, what's the deal?", he asked.

Kahlanx grunted, "Heh, It's my special operations armour, didn't you hear? I'm part of a special team now. Xehn etched my name into the back too, and I etched his into his armor.", he radiated, he was so proud of his special mission and armour.

He wanted to tell them everything, about how Chakuth chose them, about how they worked together and came face to face with the legendary Demon, how they had escaped, and how brave Xehn had been by staying behind to save them all.

But as Akena's voice suddenly was heard on the Com, Kahlanx noticed how their attention got drawn away from him.

"We will be landing soon, brace for impact.", it sounded very calm, yet bore a hint of tension.

"Well are you ready to fight for our freedom? To fight for what we're worth, against our own kind, of all things.", Xurru looked exhilarated, Kahlanx could imagine him rubbing his hands with a strange sneer on his face, he chuckled at the thought.

"It's not our kind anymore, it is the enemy, and it was placed upon Chakuth to liberate our faction from the Prophets and their false religion.", he stared at how the Earth's surface continued to close in on them, 'And I will be able to see Xehn again…'.  
They could hear the ships engines suddenly change from a rumbling wiz to a more silent hum. They had entered a hovering state and were ready to open the Gravlifts down to the surface.

Xehn stood next to the person he once called 'demon', now he learned he had a name, a voice and a personality. He had never thought to have learned this human's name and actually respect him for who he was.

He shielded his eyes against the bright turquoise light that radiated from the Gravlift beam.

He waited, then small, no tiny figures emerged from the ship he had never seen before. He pondered the reaction his brother would utter as he watched him stand next to the human, he felt an inner smile rouse as the figures grew bigger and bigger until he could identify his team, Chakuth, Miph, Calith, Vemeth, Denakh, Duthaz and his own little brother.

It seemed like it happened all to fast, Kahlanx suddenly hung around his neck, screaming and laughing and possibly crying at the same time.  
Xehn rolled his eyes and pushed him off, "Man, Kahlanx I haven't been gone that long, you twerp.", he said, his voice thundering in Kahlanx' chest.

"Shut up, just for once I don't care about you 'I don't care attitude' because it's important for me to know you're still alive…", he said and grabbed his brother again.  
Xehn shook his head silently, "I'm glad to see you too…", he said softly and let his big hand pat the back of his brother.

Chakuth walked towards the Master Chief, he stared at the powerful human and nodded in respect.

"We're extremely grateful for your hospitality and we thank you for taking us in.", he started, but the human waved his sentence off.

"Don't be, we have seen what your kind can do, and we are grateful enough to fight at least half less of you. Consider this base your home if you wish, I wont stay here long, but I'm sure you have your own battles to fight.", he spoke.

Chakuth nodded, then stared back at Akena, "How many seraphs do we have?".

He noticed how the Sangheili looked away in thought, staring at a few others.

"I'm thinking about two… maybe three, in the hangar", he said.

Silence fell, Chakuth had hoped for an entire squadron, but to think that way was completely irrational.

Xehn stepped forward, his brother clinging to his arm, tapping one of his fingers on the small device on his throat, "Teach Sangheili to use human Longswords, I'm sure the humans have more starcrafts then we can muster at this moment.", he spoke, surprising the Unggoy and Kahlanx by his translated voice.

The green armoured human nodded slightly, then looked back at the highest ranking officer in command of the base, "Supply them, I have to leave as soon as possible, someone is waiting for me.", he spoke, then walked past them, towards the base.  
Before he entered he stared back at the small Unggoy in charge, "I hope you're ready for this, grunt, your responsibility is a lot bigger then you might think.", he spoke calmly, then walked into the base, leaving Chakuth staring at a closed door.

The Unggoy turned his dark eyes at his team, "I'm glad we're reunited, it means we can finally continue this mission.".

Duthaz stepped forwards, "Tell me Unggoy, what IS the mission now", he asked crossing his arms and narrowing his bright orange eyes.

Chakuth smiled underneath his breathing mask, "Easy, we ask the demon what his motives are and we find our own way to compliment that motive.", he said and stared at his teammates.

Miph stepped forward, "Okay, so we basically team up with the humans, assassinate Truth and finish this silly war.", he said, his voice slightly mocking the situation.

Xehn cocked his head to the side, his voice translated into the human language, "I think we need a different take on this, I think we need to somehow take out the troops the remaining followers of Truth have. Assassinating truth will be a task impossible for a team of our size.", he said.

Chakuth looked puzzled, Xehn had noticed as the first the little Unggoy was contemplating something.

"What's on your mind, Chakuth.", Xehn asked, his bright coloured eyes shining.

Chakuth stared directly into his turquoise eyes, for the first time stepping off the common idea of faceless aliens, Xehn's eyes showed a certain pride, but also a deep and hardened sadness.

Chakuth felt he had narrowed his eyes at the inner emotions of the emotionless creature staring back at him.

"We will infiltrate all the ships in orbit around the earth and destroy them from within…", he suddenly blurted out.

A short silence, then Duthaz' exaggerated laugh.

"Are you kidding me!", he bloated, "Covenant cruisers and destroyers are the best secured ships in the armada and you want to 'infiltrate' them? HAH!", he continued his mocking laugh until Akena stepped forward.

"An excellent idea General Zhetey, I'll make the arrangements!", he said in his eerie cheerful voice and marched off in the direction of the _Zealous Liberator. _

Duthaz looked obviously shocked, "Since when did.. 'general' Zhetey get a lapdog…?", he asked.

But the stare Chakuth gave him was a cold and serious one, "Since I became General of the Unggoy army, since I became owner of the _Zealous Liberator_.", he replied in all the calmness he could muster.

Duthaz was silent, Miph, Calith and Vemeth gave Chakuth a victorious glance, Xehn and Kahlanx remained their emotionless selves.

"Infiltrating the Cruisers and Destroyers it is then, let's go.", Chakuth said and walked the same direction Akena 'Anumee did.

As soon as the human leaders on the ground were notified of Chakuth's radical plans and all the remaining Covenant soldiers had been assigned to their posts most cam to watch the magnificent saviour-ship take off.

----

The human base's leading officer, James Harper, stood next to the lab coordinator Richard Bane, midst the mass of Covenant staring the ship off, they felt a shock of irony cross their hearts, they had killed the most of the creatures standing around them, yet the aliens showed no particular hatred to work with them.

"Was it smart to send Kate off with them…?", Richard suddenly asked staring at the massive ship and the engines slowly roaring to life.

"She seems to have taken a liking in the Hunter that stayed with us and arranged most of the meetings now… She also has the most knowledge of Covenant technology of us all, she will be needed more there then she is here, believe me.".

Richard felt it to be a bad idea to send his younger sister off in space with insufficient human control over the beasts around her, but he also felt going against the officers decisions might be a bad idea, instead he sighed and watched how the ship gathered an enormous speed in a short time and made it's way out of the atmosphere.

Kate Bane had never been in space before, she was born and raised on earth and had never been in any altitude higher then passenger flights took her.

She had been given a rather large laboratory like room to work in and 2 human companions, but she had always preferred to work alone.

As the doors opened the three humans looked up in surprise and watched how the black with gold trimmed armoured Hunter walked in.

He fidgeted with the apparatus on his neck, "I would like to speak to you…", Xehn said calmly and watched the other humans stare at him, "Alone…".

Kate waved the other two off with a nod and stared back at Xehn, "What is it?", she asked him, her face lighting up whenever she saw him.

"I'm making sure you're off this ship with the first flight back to earth…", he said and sat down on a desk he felt strong enough to support his massive weight.

"Pardon me?", she stated.

She had seen Xehn's eyes before, never thought to see the eyes of the most feared of the covenant but she had seen the sadness he carried with him.

"I'm not leaving this ship you hear?", she said suddenly.

"Yes you will, I'll make sure this will happen.", he said, coldly.

Her facial expression turned suddenly, "Don't project the feelings you have concerning your brother on me, hunter. I'm old enough to take care of me, and don't think just because you're of a different race I can't read you as well as I can read humans.", she said.

Xehn's eyes shimmered, then narrowed, she heard him growl before, but this sounded somewhat different.

"I cannot allow you to stay on this ship!", he suddenly shouted, becoming more and more uncertain of what to say.

"What are you afraid of, something will happen to me? Is that it?", she shouted back at him.

Silence.

"Xehn… are you afraid something bad will happen to me…?", she suddenly asked calmly, almost whispering, staring at his heaving chest.

Another silence, awkward this time.

She could hear his irregular breathing, long deep inhales and short exhales, all indicated for her that he was having a hard time with something.

She then smiled at him, her soft caring smile, "Nothing will happen to me while you're here am I right?", she said suddenly.

He stared at her, if she didn't think his emotions to be hidden she was proved wrong, but she had never thought to see the brutal killers to show affection to anything other then their fuel rod guns and heavy shields.

She had caught him right where she wanted him, and he felt there was no way out anymore, but giving in that in the last few days spending with her he had developed a small protective feeling for her was far beyond his pride could allow him to go.

He felt a strong need to growl and vent his frustration, but every move or word he would utter now could be a sign of his defeat to her.

'Damn…', he thought as he stared at her.

"I'm actually surprised you care about me that much Xehn.", she said and put down the tools she was working with earlier.

Xehn was about to say something but decided against it, he was still to proud to give in to the human woman.

She walked towards him and took his immense hand, it took both her arms to lift it and hold it good.

"I appreciate your concern, its cute Xehn…", she said and smiled, staring at his hand.

Then looked at his turquoise eyes, calm and shallow now, like the shore of a tropical beach.

She felt how his hand moved suddenly and how his other hand found its way to her shoulder.

She felt her smile turn into a small grin and closed her eyes in their moment of warmth until Xehn rose his head slowly.

"You're welcome…", he said.

------------

Chakuth had his hands firmly on the console, his dark eyes primed on the navigational screen, he knew soon he had to leave his work to someone else and board the only Phantom in the squadron of Longsword and Seraph fighters.

He watched Akena's screen as he saw how they entered the right position for and felt his heart skip a beat.

Akena turned around to signal Chakuth for his leaving but found that the chair the Unggoy was sitting in before, was empty.  
Chakuth was already on his way to the hangar and saw how other Unggoy and Sangheili were doing the same. He felt weird but when the other 4 Unggoy of his team met up with him he felt a lot more secure. He saw how Xehn left the lab and how Kahlanx already stood waiting at the Phantom they were given.

Duthaz already found his place behind the controls of the agile spacecraft.

As Chakuth and his team stepped inside Chakuth separated from them and waited for 3 humans to step in, then closed the bulkhead to the cockpit, staying behind with Duthaz.

"Are you ready…?", The Sangheili asked, but Chakuth didn't reply, instead he started up the navigational computer and watched how it readied itself by checking its surroundings.

"More ready then I will ever be, it's time to end this war.", he said.

Duthaz started the engines and waited for the signal to leave. When all other fighters before him had depleted, it was his time to leave. With a swift movement the Phantom was off its guards and flew into space.

It remained silent in the cockpit as the Sangheili did his task and Chakuth did his, the navigational board showed now signs of their target as of yet. A giant CCS class cruiser the size of twice the speedy _Zealous Liberator._ The control centre for all the cruisers and destroyers in orbit around the earth.

Once taken out all orders to destroy go with it.

Chakuth's plan had been a dangerous one, but to secure the earth of it's inhabitants, the giant flying plasma guns had to go…

Chakuth stared at Duthaz, "We're in range, do your thing.", he said, then entered some trajectories.

The Sangheili nodded and opened the com to the frequency of the command centre, "_Divine Hierarchy_, _Divine Hierarchy _do you read, this is Phantom 32-98.6 requesting for permission to land, we have a shipment of pilots for Seraph fighters.", Duthaz skilfully lied and slowed the Phantom down.

First an odd static then he heard a familiar voice, "Is that you Duthaz 'Kinomanee?", it sounded. Duthaz seemed surprised and happy at the same time, "Enka! What in the name of the prophets are you still doing there!", he shouted.

Chakuth stared at the lighthearted Sangheili, he seemed to know someone aboard the _Divine Hierachy._ His dark eyes narrowed slightly, then opened his com aswell, silently.

"Squadron 1 and 2, take the Divine under fire, don't get shot down…", he said then closed the channel.

Duthaz was still in a nostalgic conversation with Enka as he slowly piloted the ship towards the command ship.

"Hold on Duthaz my friend, we're under fire! Human Long swords, a whole squadron… no two!", static… Silence… static, "Duthaz, you there?", he asked then another static.

"Shields up!", he shouted and the com died out.

Duthaz was shocked, he saw how the squadrons which seemed to be on their side attack the ship his best friend was stationed on. Then stared at Chakuth, and in a frenzy attacked him.

"You! Damn you crazy son of a bitch, order them to stop attacking, there are Sangheili on that ship!", he shouted and enclosed his hands around Chakuth's thin but muscled neck.

"Get of and back to your controls you idiot!", Chakuth managed to shout through the strangling grip of the larger alien.

"Vemeth!", he shouted through his compad and watched the doors open and the Unggoy run in.

"Hands of split-chin…", Vemeth said pointing a charged plasma gun at Duthaz' head.

Duthaz let go and watched how Chakuth raced back to it behind the consoles, and how Calith walked in as well, guns aimed at his head.

"Its ok Vemeth, man the turret, 'shoot' the Longswords out of the area, at least 6 per Squad.", he said leaving Duthaz completely puzzled.

Vemeth didn't even hestitate one second, he knew of Chakuth's plans well before Duthaz did.

"Duthaz are you done being ridiculously angry? If so get behind the controls ready to tell them that we took care of the Longswords.", he said and rubbed his neck.  
The Sangheili was astonished, it was the perfect delusion for them to believe they were still on the side of the Prophets, he growled softly and opened the com again.

Vemeth had 'taken out' 6 of each squadron of Longswords and Chakuth had ordered them to retreat.

"Enka… Are you there? We took care of the Longswords, patch through the hangar number for us please.", he said, still surprised at Chakuth's fast thinking.

"Sure thing my friend, Welcome aboard the _Devine Hierarchy_, Deus Ex Machina.", it sounded back.

----

_Footnote: Oh gawd, actually a Forummate of mine brought me on the idea of having Kate and Xehn getting closer to eachother. She's just so interested in him and well, Xehn must have his own reasons for this odd turn of events. I'll post 11 soon :)_


	11. Prodigy

_AN: FINALLY... sorry to keep you waiting ;;_

**

* * *

**

**Chapter XI – Prodigy**

Chakuth stared at his friend who tried to plug a methane geyser. He watched in awe yet he knew that something bad was about to happen.  
"Look, this is how you do it.", Heyep said as he threw the rock in the geyser and plugged it up by doing so, then turned around and grinned at his younger friend.  
"It's a bad idea you know…", Chakuth said and cocked his head to the side slightly.

"Bah, who told you that, the explosion is really cool, look!", he said as he eagerly waited for the geyser to blow the rock out of the way.  
Chakuth instinctively took a few steps back and shook his head, "You should really get away from there now…". Heyep stared back at him, "You used to telling others what to do?", and he stepped on the stone to show him the safety in the entire game.

But his weight pushed the stone deeper into the geyser shutting off all air and causing the geyser to sputter its air in the damp ground next to it.

"Heyep… get off that rock please…", he said carefully, wanting to be anywhere but here at the moment. "Hush! You hear that? It's almost gonna blow!", Heyep said.

Chakuth didn't have the time to tell him it wasn't almost at all. He stared how the small Unggoy flew off into the air, the rock following him on his tail. The freezing methane was to pure and cold to handle on bare skin, and the thin rag for a shirt Heyep was wearing wasn't going to protect him from burning alive in the freezing gas.  
Chakuth's mouth fell wide open as the burned but still alive body hit the ground, the skin was completely scarred and crimpled.

The stone that fell on Heyep was the blow that Chakuth needed to turn and run away.

But when he was about to turn he felt a familiar hand cover his eyes and another grab his arm tightly. He was carefully but swiftly dragged away and the hand went off his hand he saw he was brought back to his home.

In front of him stood his weeping mother, "What did I tell you about Heyep…", she said and shook Chakuth's shoulders.

Chakuth was speechless, he watched his friend die and now his mother was upset with him, he finally felt tears break through his mask of pride and he started to cry wanting nothing but his mother's comforting. As soon as Shima saw her son cry like that she embraced him in her arms and shushed him silently.

"There, there… I'm here Chakuth… calm now my son…", she whispered.

* * *

Chakuth's dreams were always bad ones, he had seen his father die many times, and his house and planet were destroyed so often he didn't even dare to count. The dream about Heyep was no different from his usual apocalypse dreams, but something about it made him wake and scream out of pure terror. As he realized it was a dream he wished he didn't scream, and the reason for it had just stormed into his room, completely shocked and worried.

The young Unggoy had always been different, he was a silent inverted kind of child, not at all interested in the silly games others of his age played. Instead he'd watch the bubbles in the swamplands, and look at the odd creatures the methane marshlands had to offer.  
If there was one thing he hated, it was his mother's overreacting protection for anything.

"Mom… let go, please, I'm ok….", he said muffled into his mother's shoulder.

Chakuth's yet to be pigmented grey eyes primed into his mother's dark ones, "I'm not afraid of my dreams…", he said.

Shima sighed, "It's okay to be afraid Chakuth… really", she said and rubbed her hand over his head.

Chakuth sighed, he moved his head away from his mother and heard her leave the room silently.

'What does she really know about me…', he thought as he stared out of the window of his room. He slowly rose from his bed and couldn't resist to take a look outside, "Father… Why aren't you ever around…", he whispered to himself and sighed.

* * *

Shima tugged on Chakuth's shirt, he stood huffing and grunting at her, "It's ok now, let it go mom!", he said and pulled the edges of his clothing out of her hands. She stared at him, nodded and rose, "Let's go then.", she said and grabbed his hand, leading him out of the house.

"Do I really have to come along?", Chakuth finally asked, halfway there. Shima eyed him, then stared back at the path ahead of them, "You need to socialize, after that accident you haven't seen any other Unggoy's face.", she said and dragged him along. He stared back at her, "What if I don't want to see any one else's face? What if I want to stay alone and quiet, playing in the forests?".

It remained silent for a while, then a path of lanterns showed them the way to their destination.

"That's what I am so worried about Chakuth…", she said and pushed him into the lodge, filled with other rich Unggoy. As soon as Shima had released Chakuth's hand he had fled outside to find the nearest children's playground. He hadn't expected anyone else to be there, but apparently he wasn't the only one dragged to the grown-up's party.

His grey eyes primed the stares the others were giving him.

For a second it seemed to much, his stare lingered down, he knew that the news about Heyep's death and his inability to stop him and do something about it had spread like a methane fire. He felt it was best to just stay where he had been staying since he was old enough to commune.  
The others stared him off until he disappeared out of view into the woods, "He's cursed…", the oldest said and poked a youngling.

"How do you know?", another asked.

"Because bad luck follows him wherever he goes…".

Chakuth's clawed finger traced small signs in the swampy ground, and as he was done with them they filled with the murky water which made the ground the way it was. His eyes narrowed slightly and his pupils adjusted to the new environment. The strange sensation he felt earlier hadn't left yet and the image of Heyep's gruesome death was still with him. As he felt he was about to break the strangest little creature jumped by his hand. It had 2 eyes, it had 4 legs and a smooth skin. Chakuth had never seen anything like it before. He knew the variant they called Ghanakwa, with 4 eyes but 6 legs, it fed off small bugs. It looked the same but it looked different, like it was mutated off something.

He cupped his small hands around the creature and lifted it off the ground, to study it a little better, but as soon as he looked at it he something shine behind the small creature. He startled, dropped the creature and ran. But as soon as he was to reach the open playground he was grabbed, a firm hand in front of his mouth and he was pulled back. He screamed into the hand, the slender smooth-skinned hand.

"Silent…", a dark but familiar voice whispered.

Chakuth's eyes widened at the laughter he heard behind him, so familiar, so loving. He looked back and before he knew it he was turned to face his father's smiling face, "Hello Chakuth, how are you?", he spoke. Chakuth didn't know what to say, how to react or what his face should have looked like. Instead he just screamed a joyful one and jumped into his father's arms.

"Finally you returned dad!", he shouted and buried his face against the shining plates of his father's armour, and for the first time, metal felt good.

"So why are you out here?", Chakuth asked as he slightly jerked his father's hand, staring at him with big happy eyes.

"Ah you know how I hate those parties, such a drag about the return of soldiers, bah.", he said smiling.

Chakuth almost jumped, "Will you be staying this time?", he asked.

"Ah Chakuth…", he started and stopped walking, turning to his son and kneeling in front of him, "This war… it's not going to stop for a while… The humans are a lot stronger then we had expected and it means I will have to return soon.".

Chakuth's hopeful eyes hurt Charam down to his core, "Chakuth… enough about me, how are you? How is your education, do you like navigation?", he asked fighting the tears.

Chakuth nodded, "Navigation is hard but it's a lot of fun, I have nice classmates, they are all much older then I am but I am happy because of that. And I'm getting high grades I love it very much!", he said.

"That's wonderful Chakuth, wonderful.", he said, thinking about the agreements he made with the Covenant recruitment Council.

Thinking about it made him sad, when the council had found out about his new born child they forced him into a full progress monitoring. Every new frontier in baby Chakuth's life was to be registered and closely monitored for future recruitment. It made Charam damn the day he was proclaimed extremely intelligent, a purebred prodigy. Chakuth inherited his incredible intelligence and capabilities, as in so far the council insisted on having him in the covenant army, it was also the choice of the council to have him study navigation instead of superior battle tactics and leadership like his father had. As they walked inside Chakuth saw all the other families happy together and all he wanted was for his mother to see his father now and that they could be together for the rest of the evening. For the first time in ages he actually felt good in the midst of people.

* * *

"I'm terminating the agreement…", Charam said.

"You can't terminate it now Ikuda, you have already agreed and there is no turning back, we are already making arrangements for your son, he is going to be recruited in the Covenant army when he reaches his 16th life year Ikuda, there is no way for you to stop this anymore.", the dark voice of the minor Prophet spoke. Charam felt the pressure rise in his jaws as he gritted his teeth as hard as he could, "You can't do his… He has a lot better life here then he can ever have there, you know that.", he spoke.

"Ikuda, this conversation is over, he will be recruited…", it sounded, then the line went dead.

Charam's eyes fixated on Shima's, he felt guilty and as soon as he could, he brought his stare off her.

"Charam…", she started.

But the general shook his head and looked away, walking into Chakuth's room.

Staring at the young sleeping Unggoy he though about what he did, even though it seemed like it was a privilege, an honour to serve the great Covenant, now it was like he had sold his son's destiny to the greedy hands of the religion-crazed Prophets.

'Oh Chakuth… may the spirits of the swamps be merciful on you these next 6 years…', he thought as he sat down slowly against the wall with his hands on his head.

* * *

Chakuth stared at his father, he wanted to say how much he wanted him to stay, but he knew it was no good. Duty called and the great General Charam Ikuda Zhetey and his team were called back to the everlasting war. He felt the painful stings surge though his small heart, the horrible visions and images flew through his mind and all he could think about was his father, the only person who treated him like he wanted to be treated. He stared along side his mother until the ship was out of sight and as soon as he could he found himself in the swamplands again, trotting the muddy grounds as he always would.

The marsh was always very noisy but on this particular day, silence ruled the methane swamps.

There wasn't a day Chakuth didn't feel alone or forgotten, but today he felt like he was directly abandoned by everything he always held close to him. His father was gone again, and spirits know for how long again.

"No… I won't miss you.. I won't cry for you, I won't be afraid…", he suddenly said to himself and started running.

As he passed the amazing lands into one of the very few plains the planet had to offer he stared up into the beautiful blue-green skies to see the imposing Mehwa birds soar over, in search of their prey. His father had told them about the reptilian birds, about how they defied gravity with their amazing bone structures. Ever since, it was Chakuth's dream to fly. Now the birds were merely birds, soaring, minding their own business but most of all, not a part of Chakuth's life anymore. He looked back at the edge of the swamp, where mists erupted from the methane geysers and filled the sky with precious air to breathe.

His planet was a miracle on it's own, and if it ever had been Chakuth's choice, he would never even think about leaving his home world.

* * *

"Pardon me…?", Chakuth started, but the officer wasn't about to excuse him.

"You have been selected for the new generation of the Covenant's best, congratulations son, you're being deported.", he said, bowed at Shima and walked off.

Chakuth had never seen such a creature, tall, dangerous and with a very elongated but intimidating face. Sangheili, was what his father had told him they were called, a very proud and old race, like the mighty Lekgolo. But this creature looked anything but ancient. It looked cocky and arrogant, head over heels into its own world, no.. this wasn't anything like the Sangheili his father had told him about.

Shima grabbed Chakuth's arm carefully, "I'm so happy for you, now you can finally perform Navigation in the Covenant Armada, isn't that wonderful?", she spoke. But Chakuth could almost taste his mother's sadness and sarcasm.

"Yes… very.", he said coldly and pulled his arm out of her hands and walked into the house.

That night, after he had packed his most important belongings and had eaten little to nothing he stared at the ceiling of his soon to be ex-room.

'Father… did you know about this…?', he thought as he closed his brown eyes and sighed deeply.

'What if you did… did you ever try to stop it? You knew how much I hated the war… how much I hated the Covenant… father….', he spoke to himself and gritted his teeth.

* * *

'Find cover!", Charam shouted at his squad and prepared himself for the next impact.

He covered his ears and braced himself for the next explosion. It came as hard and fast as he had calculated, and the impact blew away another part of the wall.

"Damn it…", he cursed out loud and stared around the wall seeing half of his squad in pieces and dead.

He plotted, for a few seconds he was silent, then came his next move, the massive fuel rod gun he had was lifted onto his shoulders again, he stared around the edge, aimed and shot. He didn't take the time to watch the bolt of plasma-waste make it's way to incinerate the humans, whenever he took aim, he knew it would hit. He heard the screams and leaned back against the wall in relief, for a minute he had elongated his lifespan, but soon the lost human lives would be replaced. It was only a matter of time. The prophets had sent him into his death, and he knew what he was doing when he stepped into the phantom. He was to buy time, that was all. He shook his head and pictured Chakuth's face in front of him, smiling, laughing…

'Oh Chakuth… You are the new hope… you are the Unggoy of Prophecies… you have what it takes Chakuth… you…', his thought was interrupted by a scream. An immature scream.

General Charam Ikuda Zhetey, leader of the Unggoy forces and representative of his race then lay eyes on the immature form of a terrified Sangheili teenager. About Chakuth's age he figured, he screamed louder then he thought was possible. He took the chance and scuttled from his wall to the young Sangheili's to silence him somehow.

"Hey, quiet down, you don't want to give away our position now do you!", he said in a forced whisper.

The Sangheili gradually calmed down and stared at the Unggoy he was sitting with.

"What's your name…?", Charam asked after he had silenced down.

"… A-Akena… 'Anumee", the rookie said as he felt he was slowly starting to pick up breathing.

"Well 'Anumee, you'll have to be brave now for a bit ok? If we hurry now we can still make it back alive.", he spoke and placed his hand on the still uneasy rookie.

"You go first, go…", Charam started, "Stay low!", he added to it.

Akena crouched over the ground, under the safeguard of the middle aged Unggoy general, he somehow reminded him of his own father. Shots, it sounded like a whole magazine of a handgun was emptied, about 12 shots, Charam wasn't sure, nor did he care. He jumped to his feet, told Akena to do the same and ran toward the Phantom waiting for them. Then another shot, a bolt of hot molten blue plasma soared by them, and Charam was fast enough to react as fast as his brain and body would take him. The humans had picked up a Sangheili weapon, and now firing it at the last two survivors of the earlier shoot-out.

Another blast, and another, Charam was now realizing it was too far for them to both make it at this point.

He nodded to himself and pulled the young Sangheili away from the fire in a manner that resembled being hit. Akena was surprised when he hit the floor with the Unggoy general next to him.

"Listen to me Akena…", Charam started, "You will live ok? You must live…", he said then remained quiet for a second, "Pretend as if you are dead, now.", he said then did the same.

Akena didn't doubt for a single second and did as the general told him to. As the humans passed by he heard laughs, they talked in a mocking manner about them, he understood that part. Then Charam moved, drew dual plasma rifles and shot, the burning plasma pierced the first human, the second and even the third, Akena stood amazed at the low amount of shots, but how fatal he had aimed and hit.

"Run Akena, head for the ship NOW!", Charam screamed and waited with the next shots until the rookie had stood up and started running.

Akena heard the shots, the hiss and the scream.

He felt a shiver run down his spine and jumped into the ship and waited, but it didn't leave. But it seemed the humans did leave, there was no sound anymore, just the dusty wind and distant explosions. Akena couldn't dare to leave without checking upon the brave Unggoy which saved his life. As soon as he reached him he saw how severe the wounds were, pierced his lungs his breathing apparatus and his abdomen.

"Oh no… Let me help you… in..", but the general waved his words away.

"If you want to repay…this debt… I .. I want you to build a ship…", Charam started.

Akena shook his head, "I'm not qualified…".

"Non-sense, find qualified… Sangheili, end the corruption.. end… it. Build that ship… find my son… and aid him.", Charam said silently.

"But… where can I find your son… and what is his name… no… wait!", he said desperately as he noticed how the Unggoy's life ebbed away, "Sir!...", he tried again.

With his last breath, the Unggoy general could muster to just whisper his son's name to the young Sangheili.

"Chakuth… Zhetey…".

* * *

"Father!", Chakuth screamed as he suddenly sat up in his bed.

His pupils narrowed and adjusted to the unnatural light in his room, the small horrible room that he was given after his assignment to the Covenant Armada. The child of a prodigy, born into a rich and famous family, son of the great General Charam Ikuda Zhetey. All the privileges in the world that came with his name couldn't bring back his father to him.

All the power and money that provided him with the best of armour and weapons and even educations couldn't make up for the short youth he had.

And even the new friends he had made were not enough to fill the gap that was shot into his heart by the human race and their war of the fiercest. But his hatred for the human race could not wither the hatred for the Covenant and their never ending pride and silly religion. Chakuth Zhetey had found himself sold to the Armada thanks to his amazing intelligence and navigational abilities. He was the new representative, 16 years old and to be ready to kill at will. It was the destiny that he was made for, the prodigy of a war raging over a religion he didn't believe in.

* * *

_AN: So sorry it took so long to update... silly enough most of it was allready done. I just forgat to publish it Silly me...  
Anyway I hope to be publishing the 7 chapters I have here soon, time is such a drag tbh... I work whole days now 40 hours a week so time is luxury I hardly can afford.. XD Ah well I'll live! 4 months to go._


	12. Backfire

_**Opening note:** Ugh... been too long since I updated this > I'm SOSOSOSOOOO Sorry! I've been so busy with crap I kind of just forgot Oo;;;_

_Btw, might be a bit surprising at the end... Chapter 13 will bring a new weird twist to the story too, at the 'request' of a S7 member a while back... XD  
Prepare!_

**- Ani.

* * *

**

**Chapter XII – Backfire**

"Deus Ex Machina…? God of the machine? What's that all about..?", asked Chakuth, somewhat mocking Duthaz' turbulent life as Shipmaster.The Sangheili muttered something then huffed, "Just as ridiculous as your sudden promotion to General.", he said, then walked up to meet his old friend.

"Ahh Duthaz 'Kinomanee, long lost shipmaster. Where is your fleet?", Enka asked, obviously unknown with Duthaz' recent demotion to scumbag and heretic.  
The older Sangheili just nodded at him, he felt there was no need to explain what happened to his master position due to his failure at Halo 04.

"It doesn't matter anyway, what can I do for you my friend?", Enka rambled.

Duthaz' orange eyes remained grim, he knew what he had to do, take out the shipmaster and take control over the control centre of the Covenant fleet. And it also meant betraying the only friend he had.

"I have brought a few Seraph flyers, but I wondered how many you had left on this ship, in employment I mean.", he asked.

Enka looked over his shoulder and got a questionable stare in return, "To be honest we haven't got many soldiers on this ship, all drained to lesser CCS cruisers. Apparently the firepower itself is more important than the person controlling it, interesting enough.", he started.

"Can you give an estimate?", Duthaz asked anyway.

"Fifty, give or take…", Enka answered.

A short silence then he looked over to Chakuth, "I'm sorry Enka…", he said and stepped aside.

Enka seemed oblivious, "Who's this, your Unggoy servant?", he asked.

Chakuth smiled under his mask and pressed the holopad to open the door. As the bulkhead slowly parted the rest of his team stood armed and ready to kill at will. As Enka laid eyes on the Lekgolo brothers he slowly realized what was happening, they weren't around to chat over fancy dinner but to take control of the _Divine Hierarchy_, his ship.  
Xehn stepped in, his massive armour showing his rank and function, Behemoth, bred for mass destruction in short time.

"What's this all about Duthaz…?", he asked in confusion and slight fear.

Chakuth stepped forward, "It's best to ask me that question, I'm the leader of this group and general of the Earth's Unggoy forces. I'm here to dismantle the control of this ship and perhaps… blow it back to High Charity.", he said, his voice cold and certainly not joking.

"The Earth's Unggoy forces…? What's the meaning of..", before he knew it humans had strained him down along with the rest of the bridge's crew and guards. Never had the faithful Sangheili Enka thought to see a member of his race to side with the filthy humans of the earth, to betray the Prophets like that and ignore every treasure promised to them as they activated the Ark.

"Kinomanee! Have you gone crazy!", Enka shouted through the grip of 3 humans.

"No Enka… I have seen what the Prophets will do with us when they find 'better' replacements, and believe me my delusional friend, it's not good…", he said and aimed a plasma rifle at the com-link console connected to the Forerunner ship.

"This holy war is over Enka, because there was never a goal to fight for…", he said coldly, then pulled the trigger and released a bolt of blue plasma at the machine.

Enka's brown eyes widened then stared back at Duthaz', "Heresy!", he shouted then fought himself out of the human's grip and drew his rifle.

"It's heresy!", he screamed but found himself in the strong grip of the massive Lekgolo staring down on him.

"Bad idea…", Xehn's heavy but translated voice thundered.

The thought of a translated, actually understandable Lekgolo was frightening enough to listen to the creature. Being at least two times his size it was the wiser decision to stop the pointless struggle. Kahlanx stepped up to stand next to the humans, helping them restrain the other crewmen Enka had under his command. And while Chakuth and Duthaz dismantled the ship's shields and weapons another group of humans ran off to the hangar, possibly to take down more soldiers.

Chakuth stared at the navigational logs and narrowed his eyes at them, "The remaining CCS' are positioned to fire…", Chakuth spoke and stared at Duthaz.

"Are they actually planning to glass the entire planet like they did to Reach…?", he asked his Sangheili team member, just as puzzled as he was.

"They wouldn't, that'd cost them to many troops…", Duthaz said calmly and looked at Enka.  
The brown eyes of the captured shipmaster narrowed as his former friend walked up to him.

"I'm not saying anything Duthaz…", he said, but Duthaz knew his friend better than Enka did himself.  
The rifle was just as easily placed on Enka's forehead as it was on the computer console.

"What is Truth planning to do…", he asked coldly.

* * *

Miph felt weird being separated from his leader and friend, but the task of commander of the 20 humans and Calith, Vemeth and Denakh was interesting enough not to chicken out of it.

"Ok this should be it then…", Miph spoke and opened the bulkhead to the Hangar.

The humans immediately stormed in, shooting down whatever moved and posed a threat. Calith and Vemeth, specialized gunmen had already taken their positions behind the turrets. Miph and Denakh remained where they were, he called it guard-duty.

"I count 8 Seraphs, good enough?", Denakh asked Miph, but the young Unggoy was to deep in thought to actually notice the rookie talking.

"I have a bad feeling…", Miph said and drew his plasma guns.

The rookie almost jumped at Miph's ominous warning, and rushed to stand behind him. The humans did what they could to get the Seraphs operational and out of the ship as soon as possible, they needed all the small fighters they could use. The opening bulkhead was a bad thing, Chakuth wasn't going to just run in without notice. Miph's bad feeling came true as 35 Sangheili soldiers ran in and started shooting at the working humans. Miph was fast enough to duck behind a crate, but Denakh found himself caught right in the sight of a soldier eager to shoot. A first shot, a second and a third, all pierced though his armour and body, throwing the young Unggoy off balance. Miph watched how the young rookie was shot down as easily as that, no remorse just three deadly shots.

It didn't take the skilled human marines too long to take care of the new problem, but Miph had no other goal besides getting Denakh to safety. As soon as the Sangheili were taken care of Miph ran over to Denakh and found a child, crying in pain.

"Hey… stay with us man…", Miph shouted to the young soldier as he held him upright. "Don't you dare leave this team, Chakuth himself chose you!", Miph added to it and watched the tears mingle with the phosphorous blue blood trickling from underneath the breathing mask.

"Come on…", Miph said softer this time while Vemeth and Calith joined him.

Calith sighed calmly, "Give up Miph… seen it a million times, he's not gonna make it…". Vemeth said nothing, then reached for his holopad and connected to Chakuth.

"Soldier down, I repeat… Never mind… Chakuth… Denakh was shot down…", Vemeth's raspy voice sounded on the Holopad, and Chakuth stared at Duthaz then back at the holopad.

"I hear you… is it… bad?", Chakuth asked unknowing what to do for a second.

He was trained to cope with death, and he had seen so many soldiers and even friends die. But the bond he had developed with his team was different… This was more then a soldier.

"He's dying Chakuth… We can't save him…", Vemeth sounded again.

"Damnit…", Chakuth uttered and turned his holopad off.

He marched over to Enka, "Duthaz do with him what you like, but this ship has to go. I'll have to figure out what this position means later.". The Unggoy walked over to the console, downloaded the information and walked out of the bridge room. The Lekgolo brothers and Duthaz were puzzled, they had never seen the cool-headed Unggoy as upset and almost confused as this. Returning glances, they then shot. The entire crew shot down in the blink of an eye, leaving the lone shipmaster to his fate, the larger part of Chakuth's team walked out of the bridge and followed Chakuth to the hangar.

In the hangar Denakh was still alive surprisingly enough, the biofoam humans used seemed to work on the scaly Unggoy skin as well.

"I … I don't want to go…", Denakh uttered silently, broken.

Miph shushed him, "There's no need to talk, we all know how you feel… save your energy, Chakuth will be here shortly.".

As Miph predicted, the bulkhead opened and Chakuth stormed in.

"Denakh, hold on, we're leaving now, we'll get you back to the _Zealous Liberator_ now, there you will get the best treatment possible, hold on Denakh!", Chakuth shouted and told the Unggoy to load him into the Phantom. But to the sudden surprise of the Unggoy Kahlanx had already lifted the small Unggoy off the ground, and walked him to the Phantom. Chakuth nodded at him and walked to the carrier-craft himself, "Blow this ship up, it'd better not get back online anymore…", he said to the humans and stepped into the Phantom.

As soon as Chakuth's team was safely into the ship it took off, followed by the growing squadron of Seraph Fighters.

In a hurry they made their way back to their home, their only home now.

* * *

The frown on Kate's face was a difficult one, she bit her lip and moved the small burner around on Denakh's skin. Trying to repair the broken, ruptured and burned skin from the immense plasma burn it had to suffer.  
Xehn hadn't strayed from her side since he had returned, but she didn't seem to mind. Her almost infinite patience when it came to operating and science kept her from getting irritated by anything.

She wiped her face, took a deep breath and squinted her green eyes in a fashion Xehn thought to be desperation.

He knew the pressure Chakuth's facial expression must've given her was immense, Chakuth was such a charismatic being, and he had an amazing effect on anyone he got close to. Xehn smiled to himself, thinking about the first time he laid eyes on the small Unggoy, brave and bold as he stood there carrying out orders. But he soon proved himself more than capable of leading the team and lifting the burdens of his rank on his young shoulders.

He watched the human doctor work, ever so keen on listening to the Unggoy's heartbeat, fast but still steady. Another flash, another piece of skin attached back together, but the damage the plasma had done to the fragile body of the young rookie was so big Kate had told Chakuth she wasn't sure if she could save him.

She started breathing irregularly and blinking her eyes more often.

"…Kate…", Xehn started carefully.

"Please… I can do this, just a little longer.", she said and aimed the burner again, her hand not as steady as before the moment the respiratory and heart machines started beeping in emergency.

Xehn now knew for sure she had no idea how the Unggoy anatomy worked, but she had been too proud and too certain she could be useful enough to stay in his eyes, she had gone head over heels into something that she couldn't do.  
The machines started beeping more frantically now, and her hands shaking out of control.

For a moment she did nothing, to astounded at the sudden flat lined beep, a monotone eerie sound that filled the purple coloured room. Silence, the machine had started automatic defibrillation, shocking the small body in such a way Kate just couldn't watch. The machine precisely calculated every shock, and eventually proclaimed the Unggoy dead after few useless efforts.

She had her lower lip clenched tightly between her teeth and trembled, "I'm sure now you see much more reasons to get me off this ship huh…", she said quietly.

The massive Lekgolo that had been standing out of the operation light before now walked into the beam, the bright light reflecting off his shining black armour. He was silent, more silent than Kate had ever thought he could be.  
But when he enclosed her into his arms and pushed her gently against the orange skin of his abdomen, it said more then his words could ever say. He remained silent, but through the skin, his flesh and his breathing she could hear his heartbeat, and for her it said enough.

* * *

Chakuth had stared out of one of the windows in hull, it showed the earth, the planet he was fighting for. But his mind wasn't with the war, or with the humans fighting for their lives. His thoughts were with the young Denakh, barely 17, possible KIA… He sighed and leaned on the sill of the thick window. He startled as he felt Miph nudge his shoulders and leaned against him, "Are you ok?".

Chakuth felt it as his duty to say he was, he was after all, the leader of a very representative team, not to mention the Unggoy General.

He didn't feel anything for being a general right now, he wanted to be himself, the Chakuth who could be honest about what he felt. He sighed and stared at Miph.

"To be honest… I feel horrible…", he said and stared back out of the window, leaving his team with a stare.

Duthaz felt he instinctively narrowed his eyes, "This is war, Chakuth… soldiers die… and it doesn't really matter if they're friends or not, the feeling always remains the same. It will always be horrible.", he spoke, the always present sneer in his voice now replaced with what should be his normal voice tone.  
Chakuth stared at the Sangheili, never had he thought to hear such comforting words from the possibly most grumpy shipmaster he had ever met.

He nodded slightly, as he felt it was the only thing he could do in such a situation.  
Then all went quiet again, just the regular silent breathing from the four Unggoy in the hall. Kahlanx had never been so quiet in his life and Duthaz felt this was the time to remain quiet for another purpose than out of irritation.

The door slid open, Kate walked out, her eyes red and gloves stained in phosphoric blue blood. Behind her stood Xehn, giving Kahlanx an ever meaningful glare.

"I… I did what I could…", she started.

Chakuth's dark pupils narrowed as he gasped for air, then ran past her into the room.

When he stopped at the table the figure of Denakh laid under he stared at nothing more then a maiden white sheet. It had no stains and it showed no signs of death.

He felt his eyes burn until tears rolled over his cheeks. The first failure in his short career cost the life of a friend.

* * *

**Closing note: **_Well, yeah... uhm hoped you liked D:... will update more asap._


	13. Morning above Scorched Earth

_**Opening note:** Fastest update ever! Whooo!_

_This is bit of a feel-good chapter, for the people among us who feel the pain D:... Anyway, have fun ;D_**

* * *

**

Chapter XIII – Morning above Scorched Earth

'Denakh was my responsibility… I was to look after him, It was my fault…', ominous thoughts roamed through Chakuth's occupied mind, he wasn't sure how to finish the war around the planet and he wasn't sure how to handle the entire situation around Denakh's death. The silence that had crept into the _Zealous Liberator _was murdering, as if a thousand people would scream at the same time, the silence was deafening. Chakuth had pointlessly walked back and forth the halls staring out of the window, in need of someone to talk to, someone to hold him and to help him lead the Unggoy back to their freedom. He suddenly remembered an avid image of his mother, his overprotective but always kind mother. He remembered his father's tight and friendly hugs, and for a moment he felt like he was back home until he felt Miph's shoulders against his again.

"Hey Chakuth…", he started, his voice was so soft it sounded like a whisper.

Chakuth stared at him, "Hi…", he replied quietly.

Chakuth felt the awkward silence pierce him just as well as Miph did, it was devastating, they both had no idea which word was appropriate for the situation.

Miph swallowed, "Can you tell me a bit about our home world…?".

Chakuth felt his eyes burn again as he turned his head away slightly, "It's… a small planet… but big enough for us…".

Miph stared at him, he had been born in High Charity, the Unggoy quarters was where his lineage started and ended. But his friend was special, Chakuth was of noble blood, selected by the council and son of the famous General Charam Ikuda Zhetey.

"It…", Chakuth started again, finding it harder to talk about it so easily, "It has swamps… most of the planet is covered in it… The skies are dyed a beautiful emerald green, filled with the freshest of methane…".

His eyes slowly turned away from the wall into space.

"The villages and cities are always bustling, no day goes by without anything happening… Even though they know that there…", he stopped, stared at Miph and back at the window. He knew it was late, and the night had been long and devastating, and seeing his best friend sleep on his shoulders, quietly and peacefully was the best thing that had happened the entire night.

"If only I was more like you my friend…", Chakuth whispered.

* * *

Garrex stared at Xurru, then back at Xehn and Kahlanx, "I win.", he said and slammed his hand onto the ground. Underneath his hands formed the perfect combination, he had indeed won the game.

Xehn nodded slightly then rose, "Nice game, I have to go…", he spoke.

Kahlanx followed his moves and stared at him, "Where to…?", he suddenly asked. His older brother gave him a familiar glare meaning 'don't ask', "None of your business.". Then he turned and left the room.

"What's with him lately?", Xurru asked Kahlanx who was obviously just as puzzled as he was.

"If I knew I'd tell you, really… But I haven't got the first clue on what's going on with him…", Kahlanx replied, "Let's follow him…", he suddenly said.

The stares he received were piercing, "Follow him…? And how are you implying to somehow silently follow him, being 12 foot tall?.", Garrex said dryly. Kahlanx stared back at the older Lekgolo, "Armour less…?", he said his eyes narrowing mischievously.  
"Uhm… NO… Kahlanx I forbid you, as you brother's best friend, to walk around those halls naked…", Garrex said strictly.

"I was just kidding…", Kahlanx added to it.

* * *

Xehn fidgeted with the translation device and turned it on as he saw Kate's figure staring out of the big window.

"Anything out there…?", he asked calmly while walking up to her.

She turned to face him, smiled then turned back, "Just my home being incinerated by the Covenant…", she said quietly.  
Xehn's turquoise eyes cast down as soon as the word covenant rolled off her tongue, he wasn't all to sure what he felt himself to be part of anymore, he wasn't human, but not covenant either anymore.

She noticed, "…Sorry..", she said and stared at him.

"No, that's ok.", he replied and smiled to himself.

"Could you tell me a little more about your kind please?", she suddenly asked turning towards his stare.

"I could tell you, but is this for scientific purposes as well?", he asked her.

She smiled at him and stepped closer to him, "I think I have passed the scientific state and feel the need to know this part of history for my personal judgement of your being Mister Kuthan.", she said and folded her arms behind her back leaning closer to him.  
Xehn's pupils formed narrow slits as he focussed on her leaning in to him, he felt the immense aura radiating off her presence, followed by the most irritating yet compelling feeling he ever felt.

"Mister…?", he just managed to bring out.

She laughed, her voice sounding so much more cheerful then it did much earlier that night. He guessed it was natural for doctors to learn to cope with death so fast.

"Xehn… tell me please…?", she asked him, using both her hands to take his right hand.

He slightly tilted his head and sighed a bit.

"Very well then.", he said and stared out of the window.

"We originated from a planet similar to earth, it's got the seas the mountains, grasslands, jungles and deserts, also the poles and snow… Some say it all started with worms, but I'm not to sure what I'm to think of that theory.", he started.

"So our worm theory isn't so farfetched after all…", she said to herself but was immediately interrupted by his stare, "Oh… no Scientifics…".

"We do know we have always been a warrior race, there hasn't been a time where we weren't trying out our limits. But the way we are today is mostly because of the Covenant's constant pushing into becoming faster, better, stronger…".

"How did you get into the Covenant…?", she asked him studying his hand while listening.

"We got forced in…", he said quietly and placed his left arm on the window.

"How can a race as powerful as you are get forced into a band of much smaller weaker life forms?", she asked not noticing it was hard for him to speak about it.

"We were threatened with extinction… They said they'd glass the entire planet if we wouldn't sell out our armour technology and power.", he said, staring at her quietly.

"In a way, we were treated just as bad as the Unggoy…", he added to it and turned away again.

She had no questions anymore and just stared away quietly, leaning against his abdomen. "Perhaps the humankind has a way for you to return to your planet…", she said and closed her eyes slowly.

Xehn stared at her and exhaled, placing an arm around her shoulders carefully, "Perhaps someday…", he said.

* * *

Akena had been staring at the radar around the earth for five hours now, and still he couldn't figure out why the covenant had completely ignored the emergency protocols to form a defensive stance and attack at sight. The hand on his shoulder woke him from his deep thought, "You have to get some rest too you know…", Duthaz said with a friendly smirk on his face.

"Ah… I know but there's something very odd going on…", he said and showed Duthaz a record of the movements of the Covenant fleet over the last five hours. The former commander stared at it and as it ended it left him just as puzzled.

"Do you think that they haven't noticed the destruction of the _Divine_?", Duthaz said as he turned his gaze to meet Akena's.  
"I doubt it, the shockwave should at least have produced some form of supersonic disturbance loud enough for them to wonder what happened…", Akena replied and played it again.

"No movement at all… they're…. just stationary, seems.", he remained silent for a moment, "As if they're not manned…".

He stared at Duthaz and frowned, "Do you think they're…", he started.

"A decoy…", Duthaz finished his sentence.

* * *

The morning was abnormally quiet for the war they were situated in. Chakuth could slowly open his eyes in a manner he suited best to wake up in for the first time in at least three years. He was even able to stretch, lying on a comfortable bed under warm sheets. A small but comfortable methane filled room. Miph was still sleeping in the bed above him, the pleasant purple light which was automatically turned on at seven hadn't woken him yet. Chakuth smiled and felt the rush of everyday war and fighting fade from him as he pushed his head back into the pillow. The _Zealous Liberator _was indeed the most luxurious ship he had ever been on.

Morning came just as calm for Kate Bane, she had slept in Xehn's lap in the hall they had talked the evening before. As she opened her green eyes sleepily she positioned her head on Xehn's chest and closed her eyes again, swaying along with the movements of his breathing.

Kahlanx was the only one wide awake, lying on the floor next to the still sleeping Garrex and Xurru, he sighed as he felt he was the only one actually awake in the hall of sleeping giants. He noticed the place where Xehn slept was empty again, he started wondering what was consuming his brother like that. Without further torturing his brain with thoughts of what would be interesting enough for his brother he rose, and gave himself the mission to find his brother and find out what was keeping him away from his own little brother.

The armour rattled, no matter how he placed his legs on the floor, the sound of metal on metal would make just as much noise.  
He felt he was frowning at the irritation that was roused by his inability of being silent. His blue eyes scanned the surrounding, it was dark regardless of the purple lights which illuminated the halls. Kahlanx pressed his armoured hand against the control pad next to the bulkhead, and as soon as it opened he saw the sitting form of his older brother against the thick window.

He fought the urge to run towards him to check what was wrong until he saw the older Lekgolo was just sleeping. He decided to just stay put for a little while and observe a little bit. He couldn't put his hands down on what was lying in his lap, it was simply unable to see from his position. He shuffled, and startled as the thing in Xehn's lap showed itself more clearly.

'The… human scientist…?', Kahlanx thought to himself as he had no idea what to think of it, if there even was something to think of it.

He walked closer, casually, he didn't want to think about it, it was just to weird anyway. He sighed and slowly sat down next to his brother trying not to stare at him and the female human in his lap.  
She moved again, slowly waking up again.

She hadn't expected another Lekgolo staring right at her and startled, giving a small yelp and tripping over Xehn's armoured leg, waking him in the process.

"For the love of…", he yelled, his thundering voice startling Kahlanx in turn. He fell backwards and bumped his head against the wall.

Kate stared at the two brothers, slowly calming down and realising the silliness in the situation. Kahlanx soon endures Xehn's angry weight upon him, he couldn't do anything but laugh.

"I really caught you right in the act this time didn't I!", Kahlanx chuckled.

"What's that supposed to mean, you didn't catch anything!", Xehn replied.

Kahlanx pushed Xehn up, away from his face, "Well… you know! Sleeping with humans, it would almost make me thing you'd gone soft!".

"Don't be ridiculous…", Xehn said in a darker tone.

"Are you sure about it? That was pretty intimate, almost cute to say!", Kahlanx started laughing again and didn't even feel the weight slowly lifted off him.

Xehn's eyes narrowed and grabbed Kahlanx' neckpiece and lifted him by it without much hardship.

"Now listen good fluffball, if there was anything, anything at all going on here, you'd never even have found out you little shrimp.", Xehn stated, clearer then he had ever thought he could at his younger brother. As much as he surprised Kahlanx he surprised himself.

"Are you sure about that Xehn…?", Kahlanx whispered suddenly as he felt Xehn let go. There was no more silliness in his voice and he suddenly thought about the very odd possibility of his brother actually liking something.

Xehn let out a minor huff and motioned for his brother to follow him. And as Kahlanx turned around he stared at Kate, a glare she knew all to well, 'we'll meet again'.

Inside the smaller room Xehn took Kahlanx he almost gave his brother a death glare, but it was too obvious Kahlanx didn't feel the seriousness behind the situation.

"Kahlanx… listen.", Xehn started.

The younger Lekgolo tilted his head, "I always listen to you Xehn…", he replied.

Xehn felt uncomfortable explaining to his brother what he didn't have to, he walked back and forth before his brother and struggled to find the right words. He remained silent, but his train of thought was clearly visible to his brother.

"Xehn… what is it exactly that makes you think you are responsible for her…?", Kahlanx started, lost in Xehn's complicated mind. Xehn's turquoise eyes primed Kahlanx's blue ones, "She reminds me of you…", he suddenly stated.

"She reminds me of your stupid annoying…", another struggle for words.

Kahlanx decided to remain quiet.

"Your kindness… your… way of being…", he spoke silently.

But before he could think of any more words Kahlanx hung around his neck again, "You don't have to explain yourself if you really can't, I know how you are and what you can and can't talk about Xehn… It's odd, sure, but if you…", he went silent.  
"Kahlanx…", Xehn started, interrupting.

"As long as I remain… your brother… don't neglect me…", Kahlanx spoke softly.

Xehn laughed silently, "Almost found a way…", he said, mocking.

Kahlanx pushed himself away and gave him a disapproving stare, then laughed, "You're not getting away from me that easily!".

* * *

**Closing note: **_XD... Fluffball!_

_Yeah, so... things are okay for now X3 nodnod listens to stomach rumble O!_


	14. Decoy

_Thanks for the new reviews and support, really appreciate it! _

* * *

**Chapter XIV – Decoy **

As Duthaz opened his orange eyes slowly he realized he had fallen asleep on a control panel. Akena was already awake but didn't bother to wake him. The younger Sangheili was having a com conversation, Duthaz blinked his eyes tiredly and absently listened to the conversation Akena was having while waking up and recovering from the strained injury.

"I know… I know… It's nothing important though, I'm sure he'll get better soon. What…? Oh… Yes. Ah well I'll have to go now, my tactical officer is awake. Sure, I'll speak to you soon again.", Akena finished off the small talk and closed the COM link.

"Morning 'Kinomanee.", Akena started.

Duthaz sat up, "Ah… Hi….", he murmured and looked at the digital clocks on the panel, 9,80 units, five to nine AM human standard.

He felt a yawn come up but restrained himself from doing so, "Who were you talking to, didn't sound like mission control.", he said, smiling faintly.

Akena's face lightened a little, "No it was my home front, my sister just had a child.", he said calmly.

Duthaz frowned slightly, unable to believe his calmness in their war, calling home to check upon an ill nephew just seemed out of the question for the soldiers Duthaz had under his command as a shipmaster. He shook the thoughts out of his head.

"I see…", he said.

A short silence.

"How old are you exactly Akena…", Duthaz suddenly asked the young Sangheili.

Akena stared at the former shipmaster, somewhat bewildered, "I'm twenty-one…", he said.

Duthaz nodded and turned to the panel, "So did you think about the decoy theory?", Duthaz suddenly asked changing the subject abruptly.

Confused, Akena stared at Duthaz, "Uh, yeah I ran a scan this morning, no results as of yet, with the speed it's going right now this might take until two PM human time.".

"We might not have that much time…", Duthaz said and stared around the bridge.

Akena rose from the chair and walked to the computer performing the scan, "So far, I have three cruisers done, that's about thirteen to go…", he said.

Duthaz' attention was caught immediately, "Show me the results of those three…", he said and waited for the image on his screen.

The young Sangheili nodded and sent him the images of the three ships.

"Just as I thought… empty….", Duthaz said.

"What?!", Chakuth's voice spoke.

Both Akena and Duthaz looked back to find the Unggoy general standing in the entrance to the bridge. Akena saluted, Duthaz crossed his arms.

"Like I said, the cruisers are empty, it's a decoy.", Duthaz said.

Chakuth's eyes immediately shifted from shocked to what Duthaz identified as deep thought or plotting. The Unggoy's thoughts never took long to form, the small brain in the general's head worked like the fastest ship Duthaz had ever seen.

"Wake my team, I'm investigating, Duthaz I need you to stay here and be my external navigator, you know what these ships look like best, but one of us needs to stand by and perform short progressive life-form scans.", Chakuth spoke.

Duthaz nodded and stared at Akena for a few seconds, "Yeah, sure.", he answered.

Chakuth nodded back at the two and walked out of the door he came in.

Akena smiled, he almost radiated, "Amazing, isn't he.", he said and turned to open the ship's COM link.

"Calling General Zhetey's team, ensemble at the hangar!", Akena shouted through the COM.

* * *

Chakuth already sat in the pilots seat of the Phantom as Miph walked in and placed a hand on Chakuth's shoulder, "Did you sleep well?".

An elongated sigh, "Better than I thought…", Chakuth replied and initiated the systems, "Are Vemeth and Calith aboard yet?", he added to it.

Miph nodded and sat down in the navigator's seat, "Who's flying this thing anyway…?", he asked suddenly.

"Calith is, as far as I know.", Chakuth answered and inserted his record and password for his own navigational preferences into the machine.

"Calith can fly a Phantom?", Miph asked and stared at the complicated controls the ship had.

"Yes I can fly all small carrier crafts except for the Banshee, all ground reconnaissance vehicles are piece of cake as well, leave it to me.", he said, smiling.

Miph stared at Calith for a little while, "Awesome…", he then said and grinned under his mask, "Be sure to teach me after this war!", he added to it.

Chakuth stared at Miph, then at back, his team was loaded and ready to go, "Miph, head to the passenger room and strap yourself in, we're leaving soon.", he said as he fastened the magnetic belts.

Miph nodded and ran back, closing the bulkhead behind him.

"Ok general, where do you want to be.", Calith asked him and gave the younger Unggoy a friendly stare.

Chakuth entered a few default flight paths, then turned to him, "The nearest empty cruiser would do.", he said.

Akena closed the visual link to the hangar and sat back, "They're off.", he said and stared at the full Cruiser scans.

Duthaz stretched and folded his arms behind his head, "I'll start the progressive life-form scan of the first cruiser they're headed to.", he said and opened the COM link to Chakuth's Phantom.

"Hey Zhetey, I'm starting the first scan, should be done when you board it.", he said.

First some static, then Chakuth's voice, "Very well, thanks Duthaz.", it sounded, then it died out.

The moment Chakuth's team set foot into the first cruiser, Chakuth's holopad cried for attention. The general stopped, grabbed his holopad opened the connection, "Go ahead Duthaz.", Chakuth said.

"_Okay, left to you there should be a entrance to a bigger hallway, enter it._", it sounded.

Chakuth's hand touched the cold pad next to the door, and the bulkhead slid open.

The moment Chakuth laid eyes on the monstrosities behind the sealed door he wished he had never been brave enough to investigate…

Xehn's eyes widened, the entire hall was flood-infected, lifeless bodies of all sorts of Covenant races spread the floor in a spree of infected material and rotten flesh.

He instinctively crouched to his battle-stance and hefted his shield to his chest. He was the first to set a foot into the mass of death and trot through the disgusting mess.

"This is insane… what happened here…?", he asked, his voice translated.

Chakuth stared around not even knowing what to say. Miph was trembling and Calith and Vemeth were also at a loss of words.

Kahlanx followed his brother into the room and stayed as close as he could.

"I need to know when this ship arrived here…", Chakuth said, his voice trembling a few times.

Xehn stared around, "Ask Duthaz where the bridge is… the navigational computer should hold the data shouldn't it?", he said and softly prodded a mass of tissue on the wall.

Chakuth was about to nod when the floor moved, the flood infestations on the wall and ceiling started throbbing in a fashion that nearly made Miph throw up.

"Did you just… touch something..?", Chakuth whispered and stared at a very alert Xehn.

"What the he…" – "Shhh…", Miph was interrupted by Xehn, who moved closer to the door to a next compartment.

"There is something behind this door…", he said quietly and removed his hand from it.

"Do we want to know…?", Miph asked and took a few steps back.

Xehn stared at Kahlanx, nodded at him and opened the bulkhead.

At the sight of the Flood-infected elite all but Xehn startled enough to jump back, "I'll handle this…", Xehn said and held his shield up.

The creature roared, a deformed and tortured scream, before it charged at Xehn with an enormous leap.

The Lekgolo didn't waste a single second, the moment it came in distance he stepped forward and smashed the shield into it's chest, shattering what was left of the bones and deforming it more. As it lay on the ground, twitching and gurgling, Xehn charged his Fuel rod gun and fired it at the heap of rotten mass. In the explosion the creature evaporated entirely, leaving no trace for anyone to know such an abomination ever existed. But as Xehn saw how another eight staggered out of the darkness, he realized the cruiser was to far in deterioration to save.

"What's going on in there?! Chakuth, answer me!", Duthaz shouted as he heard the hiss and blast of a Lekgolo's Fuel rod gun.

He growled and clenched his fists on the console, all he heard were distorted voices, some screams and horrible growls.

Akena stared at Duthaz, obviously worried.

"So there is something down there… why didn't the scans pick it up?", he murmured to himself while deep in thought.

After a loud bang and the frantic howl of an overdriven engine of a phantom Chakuth's voice yelled through the com.

"_Something really bad is in there, whatever it is, destroy that ship, there is no way to figure out what they are, where they came from or… just… blow it up!_", his voice sounded obviously shocked.

Duthaz narrowed his eyes and noticed how Akena was calling the weaponry crewmen to their posts.

"Something is very wrong here… those cruisers should have arrived here not to long ago, just about a day or so after the Forerunner ship arrived here… and they came straight from High Charity…", he spoke to himself as he opened notation program and noted his findings.

He heard how the main cannon roared to life and warmed up for a blast as he searched through the frequency addresses in the computer, no High Charity listed.

The _Zealous Liberator_ shook, the plasma cannon had fired and took a direct hit in the middle of the unshielded hull of the infected cruiser.

Duthaz rose, grabbed his rifle and walked out of the bridge, "I'll be back…", he said as he closed the bulkhead behind him.

The phantom's landing was sloppy and hasted, Duthaz could tell.

Once Chakuth ran out he stepped forward, "Welcome back Zhetey, how was your first encounter with the Flood?", he spoke in a calm manner.

Chakuth's dark eyes primed at Duthaz, "Those things are the Flood? Where did they come from?!".

Duthaz didn't move a muscle, "My best guess… is High Charity…", he said.

He then shifted his position, "I think now is a good idea to head to High Charity and have the humans handle the cruisers from Earth.", he added to it.

The Unggoy general stared at the ground for a few seconds, "Why should we head there… what do you expect to find?", he asked the Sangheili.

"Answers… What are they planning, any kind of answer as to what Truth is trying to achieve will help end this war…", Duthaz replied.

Chakuth nodded, "Alright, we'll head for High Charity.", he said and walked past Duthaz, followed by the three other Unggoy and Kahlanx, Xehn remained.

"Your ideas on this… Lekgolo…?", Duthaz asked.

Xehn raised his head, "My thoughts are irrelevant at this point… I have my own worries to deal with… Oh… and my name is Xehn…", the Lekgolo said before walking past him.

Duthaz stared at Xehn for a while then followed his team to the bridge.

"Okay Akena, we plot a course to High Charity.", Chakuth said as he logged into the network.

The Sangheili shipmaster smiled and nodded, "Yes sir!", he spoke and stared at his controls, "High Charity it is.".

Chakuth entered the coordinates while deep in thought about the consequences of his decisions, he sighed and shook off his usual doom thinking and focussed on the codes.

"Forgive me for asking though, Chakuth. What do you intend to find on High Charity?", Akena asked him while staring at the input from Chakuth's computer.

The Unggoy looked back at him, "Answers…", he replied and prepared for the journey.

* * *

Xehn stood motionless in the hall, staring out the window, thinking. He didn't react until Kahlanx placed a hand on his shoulder to wake him up.

"What's bothering you…?", he asked quietly.

Xehn sighed, "Our history… Every single detail of how we came to be as we are lies in that hellhole… I'm not to sure if I want to know these 'answers' Chakuth so dearly seeks…", he spoke and closed his eyes.

Kahlanx remained silent for a few seconds before replying, "Perhaps embracing our past is better than trying to ignore it…", he said almost whispering as he placed a hand on the thick glass.

Xehn opened his eyes and stared at his little brother, "Did you embrace your past… Did you get to live with the fact we never even knew where we originated from? To never know who our parents were…", he asked him.

Kahlanx shrugged, "Never knowing is better than having known once and having to miss it…", he spoke.

The older Lekgolo remained silent, his brother made a point, but the wounds were to fresh to sew shut, he winced at the sight of his crime and looked away, silently.

* * *

**End Note:** Yeah... so I updated, woot XD goes to update some more ;D 


	15. High Charity

**Chapter XV – High Charity **

"What's on your mind…?", Kate asked the Lekgolo standing motionless in the hall, staring outside.

His turquoise eyes wandered for a moment, then met her green ones, "I was thinking about our destination…", he spoke.

Kate nodded slightly and stood next to him, staring at the same nothing he was staring at earlier. "What's so special about High Charity?", she asked quietly, fidgeting with the small pocket PC she had with her.

But Xehn remained quiet, and she noticed he was somehow reluctant to tell her.

"Hmm, I see…", she said and paced away slowly.

Xehn fought the urge to watch her leave, he felt she didn't have to know what happened.

The moment she left the hallway Akena's voice sounded over the COM, "In four hours we will be arriving at High Charity, I strongly advice you all to rest up and repair your gear… you will be needing it if you're going down…".

Xehn sighed and walked towards the Lekgolo quarters, it was time to get ready to face whatever horrors were waiting for him down on the planetoid he grew up on.

* * *

Chakuth yawned and stretched himself, scratching the scaled skin on his left arm, "Gruelling eight hours behind us… another horrible four to go…", he spoke in a broken, sleepy voice. 

Akena sat back in the comfortable chair behind his control panel, "No worries sir, I'm sure these four hours will pass just as fast as those last eight did.", he said with his cheerful voice.

"Akena, could you do me a favour…?", Chakuth started.

"Anything, sir.", he replied.

"Yes, well can you stop calling me sir, it's creeping me out, just call me Chakuth, please…", he spoke to the young shipmaster.

"Ok, then Chakuth-sir, I mean…", he looked somewhat confused, then looked away.

Chakuth shook his head slightly, then smiled, "So, did you give Duthaz a particular job around the ship?", he asked.

Akena stared at the Unggoy for a while, "Yeah I thought tactician would be something he could do perfectly.", he replied. The general frowned slightly, "Tactician… hmm…".

The Shipmaster nodded, "Well he did have his own fleet before the destruction of the first ring.", Akena spoke.

"Right… I forgot about that..", Chakuth said, and yawned again.

* * *

The hours passed incredibly slow in the Lekgolo quarters, Kahlanx had almost found himself lying on the floor out of boredom wasn't it for Xehn's return to sit next to him in boredom.

Xurru and Garrex were playing their stone game again, but Kahlanx didn't seem to understand the rules at all and wasn't feeling like being embarrassingly beaten again.

Instead he was just listening to the many conversations that were held around the room and trying not to fall asleep.

Xehn had observed his friends' silly game for a while before he suddenly felt a bump against his arm. Upon looking at what it was he saw Kahlanx had fallen asleep against him and slowly slid off.

He shook his head and positioned himself to comply with Kahlanx' sleeping position.

While staring down at his sleeping brother he smiled faintly, thinking of the youth they shared before the training and the accident. He took a deep breath and sat back against a wall placing his hand on his brother's chest.

'I would never neglect you… ever…', he thought before closing his eyes.

* * *

Duthaz gritted his teeth and felt the irresistible need to smash the console he was sitting at.

"Damn it, connect!!", he shouted at it in a wave of panic and anger and stared at the closed door of his small office-room.

A loud beep, followed by a few less loud ones and the word 'Connection Failed' came upon the screen.

"No!!", he shouted and finally smashed the board.

He closed his eyes and hit the connect button again for the last time and softly pleaded to himself for it to work.

It took abnormally long this time, Duthaz was standing with his forehead against the window when he heard the sound he wanted to hear. He looked back at the screen and saw the words 'Connected, patching through'.

He didn't know how fast he had to get to the console, but it didn't take him long.

The COM opened and static could be heard, Duthaz waited until the image slowly formed itself.

"_Duthaz? Is that you? Where are you?!"_

"I'm on my way to High Charity, where are you?",

"_It's horrible here… Almost every one is gone, hardly anyone… or anything is alive."_, it sounded as the voice slowly formed into a more female tone.

"Don't worry. It wont take any longer now…", he spoke and closed the COM, sitting back in his chair.

Almost the entire team had fallen asleep the moment they arrived at the ruined ghost planetoid High Charity, Akena had woken them when they were ready to approach the docks.

* * *

Chakuth's team stood at the entrance to the Gravlift, as silent as the grave as they waited for the mechanism to engage and the doors to open.

A loud hiss told them the Gravlift was ready to use, and as the doors opened, Chakuth was the first to walk through.

As they stepped on the platform, light engulfed them, a slight tingling sound could be felt as the beam of purple light took them down into the heart of the Covenant city. The holy capital, once it's power unmatched, now but an infected shadow of itself.

The sight below them loomed back at them, the Flood infestation was at a point none of the members of Chakuth's team had ever seen before.

Bulbous masses spread over the walls and floors, giving life to new parasites. The stench was unbearable, even through the protective methane masks the Unggoy wore, they couldn't even imagine what it had to be like without it.

Even though nothing seemed to move beneath them, they all felt a presence of some kind.

When the beam of light ended it dawned to them how severe the situation was, most of the lights had broken down and there hung a suspicious mist just above the floor, hiding anything smaller than one foot.

Chakuth felt the floor under his feet move as he stepped on a vein of some sort, he narrowed his eyes and gulped, trying not to yelp back at it.

"Still think this is a good idea…?", Duthaz whispered sarcastically but seemed to have his own plans.

Chakuth didn't reply and gathered all the power he had to keep his dinner inside and kept walking.

"What exactly do we know about these Flood creatures..?", He whispered and scanned his surroundings using his motion tracker.

Duthaz stared at Chakuth, "You have different kinds, Parasites, Carriers and Attackers, The parasites aren't really dangerous to Lekgolo or Unggoy… it's the Sangheili who are endangered by them…", he spoke quietly, paused for a moment then continued, "The Carriers explode… if you make contact with them… Well… say your prayers… The attackers are lethal but easily killed with the right kind of weapons, human shotguns seem to work really well…", he added to it.

"Alright then… let's go.", Chakuth said, "We'll head through the Lekgolo quarters to the databanks.".

The first few steps were the hardest, but when they had left the Gravlift well behind them Chakuth started to feel uneasy, it got worse every step, and stopped.

"Something is watching us…", he said.

Miph's eyes grew larger as he stared at Chakuth, "Don't… say such things, please.", he whispered at Chakuth.

Xehn stared around quietly, "I noticed that since we passed the first few crates… Something is following us rather than watching us…", he said dryly as he turned around.

Miph started to tremble as he grabbed Chakuth's arm, "Seriously… what is up with you guys, don't make it worse, you're not helping!", he said trying not to break his whispering.

Xehn stared at Miph, rolled his eyes and walked towards the crate calmly.

"Xehn, don't!", Chakuth and Kahlanx said simultaneously.

Xehn shook his head and reached behind the crate, as his hand grabbed at the being behind it, it screamed. A familiar high scream.

It fought against being lifted, but as soon as it realized what it was lifted by it just stared at Xehn.

"As you can see… Nothing to be afraid of…", Xehn spoke and put the human down.

"Miss Bane?", Chakuth started, obviously confused.

Kate patted the slime off her coat and stared at Xehn before staring at Chakuth, "Yes… Hello Chakuth.", she replied, a bit sheepishly.

Duthaz crossed his arms and sighed, "Now that's just great, don't think I'll be looking after your ass too, girl…", he said before walking ahead.

Kate gave him a disapproving stare, "I don't think I'd need your help.", she replied and crossed her arms at him.

Xehn shook his head, slightly agitated at the fact Kate had followed him down onto the grounds of death. But there was no way to lecture her now, it would have been too obvious and too dangerous.

"Let's just keep going, no point in going back now…", Xehn stated and started following Duthaz.

Chakuth stared at Xehn and shrugged, "He's right, but is it smart to take the human along?".

Miph shrugged as well, "We'll see wont we?", he said.

Kahlanx felt he frowned at how Kate had grabbed Xehn's arm and was walking as close to him as possible. If he wasn't sure before, there was no doubt about it he knew now, his brother had a soft spot for the female human doctor, and Kahlanx felt it was his sole duty to find out how and why.

Duthaz stared at how his armoured feet almost disappeared into the flood-covered floor, his orange eyes narrowed in disgust at the parasite as he saw how his kind was affected most.

A gurgled roar, and Duthaz drew his weapon to aim at the maimed and rotting infected Sangheili, the way it moved and how the tentacles whipped around made Kate jump, instinctively she clamped to Xehn.

It was about to jump at Duthaz as a charged plasma gun shot blew it's chest apart.

The Sangheili looked back at Chakuth and how he put the discharging gun back behind his back.

"Better shoot anything flood fast…", Chakuth said quietly and kept walking until he passed Duthaz.

Duthaz growled softly but decided against saying anything about it.

The odd sounds around High Charity were starting to get to them as they trotted through the Covenant Capital, every sound they heard, living or not took about a full minute or three to check out, along with the never ending darkness and horrors around them it was taking more energy than the answers might be worth.

It had been easily an hour since they left the _Zealous Liberator_ and it finally seemed the Lekgolo quarters were getting closer.

"Chakuth…", Miph started, and scratched his left arm, "Don't you think it's weird we only encountered about twelve of those flood things? Wasn't it overrun by them?".

The Unggoy general stared at Miph for a second, his heart racing.

Duthaz rolled his eyes, "There is nothing left for them to eat, they go into a certain state of hibernation to ensure their survival, waiting… lurking for something to come by.", he spoke and pried a shotgun from the former human marine.

"Even humans died here…", he sighed and loaded the gun.

"Well it doesn't matter anymore now, let's get this over with…", he spoke and walked ahead.

Xehn stared at Kate for a few seconds until he continued walking as well, "Sangheili seem to be the only prey the Flood feeds on… humans and Sangheili…", he said softly and stared at the bodies.

Chakuth stared at the Lekgolo, "Plenty of others died just because they tried… None of us will be spared, regardless of our race…", he said quietly and grabbed a shotgun too.

Miph frowned at Chakuth's doom-saying and ran after him, "Wait up Chakuth… what did you just say?".

Xehn shook his head and stared at Kahlanx, "There is something here… Something didn't go into hibernation…", he said in their tongue and watched Kahlanx nod.

Duthaz stopped, before him stood an army of the infected, all wanting his body to breed in.

The moment Chakuth saw them he was petrified, the way they moved, growled and looked, all combined into nothing Chakuth had dared to have nightmares of.

The only golden armoured host started staggering at them at a slow pace, showing the rest what to do. Then another growled, and it didn't take long for the army of them roared and ran at them. Duthaz growled back and ran too, "Die assholes!!", he shouted and held the weapon to his head to aim.

Chakuth stared at Duthaz for a second before he realized it was the only way to get out of this mess, he to loaded the shotgun and waited for the rest to attack as well.

Xehn gave Kate a small push to stand with Chakuth and the other Unggoy as he and Kahlanx walked towards the Flood.

Kate had never seen them in action before and observed as they truly worked, thought and fought in a pair.

Xehn hefted his shield to his chest and calmly walked towards them, he knew damn well that whatever armour crushed under his powerful blows would be devastating to the flesh and bones of the cursed parasites.

He nodded at Kahlanx and started running, shields up.

In true unity the two brothers bulldozed the first line of parasites away and scattered them to eliminate them in a painful crushing death, one by one.

Kahlanx' shield came down, crushing bone and armour before it reached the small infection form within the chest of the ex-Sangheili. It exploded, sending the small bits of flesh and skin flying against everything in its way.

As soon as they had driven back a number of twenty flood into a corner of the big hall they fought in Kahlanx walked back casually, leaving his brother facing twenty hungry and angry Infected.

Standing back Kahlanx heard his brother's thoughts in his mind and started charging his fuel rod gun. With all the determination in the world he fired, the super charged green plasma waste made its way to Xehn, and when it was about to pass him he walked, not a care in his mind, past the heat of the blast to a distance where potential chunks would miss him.

They didn't even watch the carnage they had created, as they were on their way to murder the next wave.

Kate had watched them, their cold bloodedness in battle was astonishing, Xehn was right about one thing, Humans had the Spartans, the Covenant had Behemoths.

* * *

**End Note:** Aaaaand another one (: 


	16. Reconciliation

_Possibly one of the most action packed chapters so far... dundundun XD_**  
**

* * *

**Chapter XVI – Reconciliation **

The battle had developed itself into a chaos as the flood had awoken at the scent of new life to kill, as if they walked from the ceilings they were everywhere, clouding even the two Lekgolo, now having trouble shaking them off.

The roars of the Flood mingled with the sound of the shotguns, the fuel rod guns and the screams of the dead souls leaving the bodies.

It soon came to day there was no way they were going to win this clutched together like this, Chakuth knew.

As soon as the last shell jumped from his shotgun he didn't even think twice before grabbing one of the weapons many of the Flood had dropped. The horrible creatures weren't just strong, they knew very well how to handle weapons…

The number didn't seem to thin out, and it was wearing them down slowly.

"Duthaz!", Chakuth shouted through the chaos and watched the Sangheili fight for his life, "Catch!", he said as he had found a Sangheili weapon between the mass of bodies, gun shells and weapons.

The Sangheili turned and caught the Plasma Sword Chakuth had thrown him, his favourite weapon, the one he was trained to fight with.

He grinned, turning the sword on and running towards them, slicing through unprotected flesh when he met it.

A scream suddenly, and Xehn watched how Kate had tried to get a weapon to and shoot them, but was now attacked by an infection form.

Xehn smashed the Flood climbing on him off by scraping them off with the walls and his shield, and as he was flood free he ran towards her, roaring louder than Kate had ever expected him to be able to.

It attracted more attack forms to them, and as Xehn pulled off the small infection form and squeezed it to death in his hand he saw how the Flood surrounded them and cut them off from the group.

He could do nothing, under his shield sat Kate, in pain and shock, trying to stand again.

He roared again in the hope someone would hear him, but the gunshots and the sound of the Flood was to loud for anyone else to hear.

He stopped moving and closed his eyes, "Kate… be as silent and motionless as you can…", he whispered.

As soon as the Flood found out there was nothing but Lekgolo blood in Xehn's body they staggered off, to join the horde attacking the remaining intruders.

Xehn opened his eyes and stared around, noticing they had left him and Kate in total darkness, slowly and silently he rose, "Are you ok…?", he whispered.

Kate stared at his eyes, they reflected every last ray of light, making his eyes seem to give light themselves.

"I… I'm ok…", she said as she stood up slowly and fell to her knees again.

Xehn sighed silently and kneeled in front of her, "Climb on my back, I'll carry you.", he said and watched her move to his back.

She laughed a bit, "How am I supposed to sit here with all these spikes growing out of your armour.", she said and made her way to his neck.

"Don't worry about them…" Xehn said and rose to his full height, startling Kate at first.

He started walking, "We have to find them somehow, but everything has quieted down a lot all of a sudden…", he spoke as he felt Kate gently wrap her arms around his neck and feeling her fall asleep slowly.

He huffed quietly and kept walking a steady pace into what he believed the direction was Chakuth and the rest were forced in.

It took long, Xehn almost felt like giving up hope, but he kept walking until he started recognizing things.

He stopped a few times, to let his hand glide over the metal walls, full with glyphs of the written Lekgolo language. He felt how he narrowed his eyes at the wall in a memorizing way, and how he had learned the written language from an elder.

He closed his eyes and continued walking, the poorly lit floor guiding the way into the remainders of the city he grew up in.

It was silent, he didn't hear anything else but Kate's breathing and his own footsteps on the cold metal.

At first he thought his eyes were deceiving him as he saw light from the main square of the Lekgolo quarters, but as he came closer and closer to the square he saw the condition the city was in, and it shocked him.

Kate woke up from his jerking body, and as she opened her eyes slowly the sight around her was astonishing.

The last piece of uninfected, unspoiled paradise in High Charity was the Lekgolo quarters, Xehn's home.

The Lekgolo underneath her seemed like he was forgetting to breathe under the amazing sight of the cleanliness of his home.

"They left it… in peace… why?", Kate started and carefully slid off his back to look around for herself a bit.

Xehn couldn't move, the memories he was confronted with didn't seem to end and it felt good, to good to give up just yet.

Until he felt a bolt of heated plasma waste pass his head, and a familiar voice shout out.

"Who are you?!", it sounded from the dark.

Kate ran towards Xehn, grabbing his hand. Xehn had fully awoken from his dreaming and held his shield up to hide her behind it.

"Tell me who you are!", it sounded again, this time accompanied by the familiar rattle of Lekgolo armour.

"Xehn… Xehn Huth Kuthan.", he stated.

It became silent for a good thirty seconds or so, then a bright light shone into Xehn's eyes, some sort of spot was aimed at him.

"I can't believe this, look at that bastard, look at his shiny armour, I can almost smell the stink of your undeserved success. And it disgusts me!", it suddenly sounded.

Then a loud clang of metal on metal, and from the beam of light, the shape of a medium sized Lekgolo walked forth.

Xehn braced himself, his mind racing, he couldn't place the voice just yet and felt how Kate pushed herself against him.

The silhouette made some gestures with his hands and more spots turned on, showing the unbelievable truth.

At least 26 surviving Lekgolo, lead by a medium sized foul mouth.

Xehn felt his blood freeze at the sight of the horrifying memory walking straight at him, becoming more real with every step he took, until he stood before Xehn.

"You... you can't be alive.", Xehn almost stuttered.

Kate felt a tremendous amount of negative energy from Xehn, almost as if he was afraid.

The other Lekgolo smiled, a head smaller than Xehn, but still seeming to have all the power he wanted, "Surprised?".

"Ghanek… you died!!", Xehn suddenly spat out as he stepped forward, his arms moving in a wild fashion, revealing the human under his care.

Ghanek stood grinning, "Now what do we have here… carrying around prisoners now?", he pushed her around.

Xehn growled softly, unwilling to tell his one enemy what was really happening between them.

"Leave her alone…", he said, against his own will.

Ghanek frowned, "Why? It's just a filthy human, why care about it.".

Xehn's head turned to face Ghanek's, his adult coloured eyes priming deep into the pale green of Ghanek's, "I'm warning you…".

The younger Lekgolo laughed and made some more gestures with his arms, and Xehn watched how one Lekgolo emerged from the shadows, grabbed Kate's arm and pulled her into a group of four.

"Have fun guys…", Ghanek said as he walked up close to Xehn and stared him directly into the eyes.

"Don't you wonder…?", he whispered at the taller Lekgolo as he started to walk circles around him.

Xehn started to feel uneasy again, and as he felt a clawed finger trace the lines of his skin he shivered, but growled.

He watched Ghanek smile, there didn't seem to be anything he wouldn't try to get him to be angry and feel uneasy.

Before Ghanek's hand was about to move to his collar under the neck piece Xehn grabbed his hand and forcefully pushed him back.

"Enough…", he grunted and walked closer to Ghanek.

"Ah, don't!", he said as he pointed at a screaming Kate as the other Lekgolo pulled on her arms.

Xehn stared at her, feeling the terror from her being, then back at Ghanek, "Let her go!", he shouted, "Tell them to let her go!!", he screamed as he roared at the smaller Ghanek.

Xehn's desperate cry didn't impress Ghanek as he rose and grinned at Xehn again, "That must suck huh, move or hurt me and she loses a limb. Oh painful…", he said as his hands reached for Xehn's head, "Look at me, Xehn. Look at your worst nightmare. I'm going to make you regret the day you tried to kill me, just to retain your honour… Well believe me, Xehn. When I'm done with you and your human friend, there will be no honour left in you for me to feed off.", Ghanek's voice had never sounded so dark before.

"Do you really think you can hurt me?!", Xehn said suddenly.

Ghanek's eyes moved towards Kate, "Who said anything about hurting you physically. Do you really think I don't notice you somehow care for that woman?", he whispered.

Xehn growled, and suddenly his speed in moving increased until his strong hands had enclosed themselves around Ghanek's neck again.

He hardly felt how hard he was squeezing, and all sound around him died out.

Ghanek could only hear Xehn's intense deep roaring and feel the air around him vibrate while his life slowly died away again.

Then air returned again as Xehn was roughly pulled off by six other Lekgolo.

Ghanek rose immediately and gasped for air, "Keep him down!!", he grunted.

Xehn felt the six pair of armoured hands push him down and scratch his exposed skin. His roars muffled as he fought the weight of Ghanek's Lekgolo.

Kate watched how Xehn used all his power to fight his capturers, seeing how cruel the race could be she looked away with tears in her eyes, relaxing her muscles from the Lekgolo that held her.

Ghanek grinned, "Look at you now, not so tough huh?", he said as he purposefully stepped down on Xehn's hand. "High and mighty Xehn Kuthan, now nothing but a shadow of his former self, hilarious.".

He then kneeled in front of Xehn and grabbed him under his jaw and held his head up, "Well then, what to do with you that would make your world collapse in on itself…", Ghanek thought out loud while staring into Xehn's eyes.

He then turned to Kate, "What is up with this anyway…? Why are you so protective of her?", he spoke while walking towards her.

Xehn's pupils narrowed as he watched in horror as Ghanek stood before her, laying his hands on her head.

"It's just an ordinary human, just like the many you ruthlessly murdered in your missions.".

He pushed her to the ground, "Well, why spare this one anyway, it's only one of them…", he spoke as he lift his foot over her head.

"Don't you _dare_ touch her!!!", Xehn suddenly shouted out as a burst of energy raced through his veins and he rose from his knees, shaking off the six Lekgolo in surprise.

He turned, smashed his shield into the heads of two Lekgolo and managed to outrun the other four.

In his burst of speed he rammed Ghanek away from the human doctor and turned to face him. "There is nothing in your power that can stop me from protecting those I care about Ghanek, so I dare you, try me…", he said in a dark undertone.

Ghanek's pale green eyes had widened at Xehn's sudden outburst but he was well on his feet again.

"Oh no Xehn, you are so wrong…", he spoke while shaking his head slowly, "So wrong…". The older Lekgolo growled as he heard Ghanek's other followers surround him slowly.

"If I can't dishonour you… I think I will just rob you of your life, and all that was ever important to you for what you did to me.", he said, sounding somewhat deluded now.

Ghanek held his hand up and all Xehn could hear was Kate's high pitched scream.

He hardly felt the first few blows to his armour, but as the immense group of Lekgolo kept slowly digging their way through the alloyed plates all he could think about was seeing the two things he loved seeing most.

"Xehn!! Please! Let him go! They'll kill him, please!!", Kate screamed in the arms of Ghanek as she heard him laugh.

"Don't bother screaming, human…", Ghanek spoke as he turned her around, "As for you… I think I know just the thing for you…", he added to it, not knowing she didn't understand a word of what he said.

"I'm sure the Flood will love to use your body as a nice breeding station…", he said as he watched the horde of parasitic forms heading for the Lekgolo Quarters, following the sound of human screams and other activity.

Kate watched in horror as the disgusting little creatures slid into the city, "Xehn!! Flood!", she screamed.

Xehn's eyes focussed on the moving ocean of terror moving in on the human and growled, ignoring the pain he dug his armoured fingers into the ground and pulled himself forward. "Get off!!", he shouted and turned around under the Lekgolo and started charging the battered Fuel rod gun still mounted to his arm.

The weapon responded slowly and hesitated with heating up the plasma rod, Xehn stared at the weapon sputter against working, but suddenly it started overheating. The Behemoth grinned and dismounted the gun from his arm and fought to bring his shield up to his head to protect him from the blast that was about to develop from his broken gun.

He heard the gun protest and the metal churn under the heat of the expanding fuel rod. Soon the metal casing couldn't hold the rod anymore and needed to release the heat. Xehn prepared and curled up as the huge explosion blew him three metres away and all the Lekgolo off him.

It took him a while to orientate due to the heavy blast and the sound of the explosion, and as he rose he stared with blurred vision at the other Lekgolo, burned, in pain and some dead.

He stared at Ghanek, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

Ghanek swallowed hard and stared at the mass destruction of his small army, "What did you do?! You murdered them!", he screamed.

Xehn remained quiet, and though most of his wounds bled he remained firm upright and walked towards the younger Lekgolo.

"You… you…", he spoke as he growled and pushed him away from Kate.

"You don't deserve to have survived the Flood…", he roared as he pushed him again, this time to the ground.

Kate startled at Xehn's sudden anger flare.

Ghanek stared at him but didn't seem to be mentally active.

Xehn's hands enclosed themselves around Ghanek's neck and squeezed, "I wont do be so nice on you this time Ghanek… you made a huge mistake…", he hissed as he watched Ghanek's breathing slow down and become ragged.

"Xehn…", he coughed as he reached for his shoulders.

Kate ran towards Xehn and grabbed his arm, pulling it, "Xehn, stop it!! You don't have to kill him!!", she screamed and did her utmost best to pull him away from Ghanek's body.

Ghanek coughed and gasped for air, tears forming into his eyes.

"Xehn!!!", Kate screamed again.

Turquoise eyes widened as the black armoured Lekgolo's hand loosened their grip around the younger Lekgolo's neck.

A small smile formed on Kate's face as she saw him rise from the ground and turn to her, head hung down. She didn't wait a minute to run to him and wrap her arms around his waist.

"Why are you still here?", Xehn asked Ghanek silently.

Ghanek seemed shocked at how easy Xehn got rid of all his friends and how he had to face the horrible moment again.

Tears ran down Ghanek's face suddenly, "The prophets gave me the mission to protect High Charity.", he stuttered.

Xehn frowned, "With twenty-four other Lekgolo? Where is your bond-brother?", Xehn asked him and let Kate go for a moment, turning to face Ghanek.

"Died… the flood got him and didn't leave anything behind…", he spoke as he stared at the ground, still in shock.

Kate screamed suddenly, drawing Xehn's utmost attention, and what he feared was happening, the small infection forms had made their way into the city and were attacking Kate by the dozen.

She frantically stepped on what she could step on and used a piece of shattered Lekgolo shield to hit them off.

Xehn rushed over to her and grabbed her hand, pulling her to his body, "Listen Ghanek, I've got some most interesting news for you, the Prophets betrayed us, they sent you and us on a suicide mission to ship us out of the Covenant. They don't care anything about us, they only care about their great journey and how they can reach their divinity.", he spoke as he shielded a terrified Kate from the infection forms.

Ghanek stared at Xehn, bewildered and unbelieving, "They did what?", he asked staring at the flood battle forms staggering into he city.

"They left this city, all of them and they took those that they thought important with them, Ghanek you were betrayed as well…", Xehn spoke as he start smashed the last group of infection forms away.

The younger Lekgolo shook his head slightly, "Why…", he whispered and stared at Xehn, now more his ally than he could ever be.

"It doesn't matter now, we have to leave, my team is out there somewhere and they can get us all out of this hellhole.".

"Xehn!", Kate yelled and pointed at the horde of Flood coming at them.

The Behemoth Lekgolo's eyes widened and he stared at Ghanek, "We have to leave, now…" .

But the three invaders to Flood-territory were caught off guard by the speed of the hungry parasites. Desperate for new flesh to breed in and feed off they stormed in clusters, taking everything apart standing in their way.

Xehn ran as fast as he could with Kate on his back and pulling a shocked and terrified Ghanek along with him. He didn't dare to look back to see what happened to the rest of Ghanek's followers, they were long gone and absorbed by the mass.

Before them lay a small gulch of Covenant wildlife, and the black-armoured Lekgolo's first thought was to get in there and wait for them to pass, hoping they'd be stupid enough. As he jumped and pulled Ghanek and let Kate jump off he pressed his back against the wall and waited.

"Alright… New strategy…", Xehn heaved and stared at Ghanek sitting down slowly.

"Why did you save me…", he asked quietly and stared at Xehn.

"Because living with your death on my account once was hard enough on my conscience…", Xehn spoke as he carefully peered over the edge.

Kate stared at Xehn, confused, "What happened…", she asked.

The older Lekgolo looked at her for a second, but shook his head.

Ghanek's eyes fluttered shut, "Thanks…", he said silently and bowed his head.

Not to long from that a loud roar emerged from the distance.

All three looked in the direction it came from, and before they knew it was all around them, huge tentacles ripped structures apart and smashed crates away, followed by another roar.

The terror was noticeable from Kate's eyes as the strong arms of the unseen monster wrapped themselves around her.

Xehn roared as he charged the creature, with speed and agility he never even knew he had. Ghanek looked around him for things to destroy the creature with.

He hardly saw the black flash pass him by, and as he watched Xehn jump onto the large lid holding on to Kate he started to understand the power his rival held.

Kate screamed as she watched Xehn's large clawed hands dig into the battered skin on the tentacle.

"Behind you!", she screamed as the grip on her slowly loosened.

Xehn's armoured boot came down just in time, and Kate was dropped a small 6 feet to the ground, but he hadn't foreseen a second and third tentacle to hit him off from the back.

The muscled arm smashed into Xehn's back plate, and both Kate and Ghanek heard the metal churn under the immense force of the hit.

Pain, intense pain surged through Xehn's spine as he managed to get back to his feet after the blow. And as he turned around he saw how the army of tentacles grew every second.

Ghanek had searched the ground for something to shoot with, and as he found it he yelled for Xehn attention, throwing a mobile sized Fuel-rod Gun at him.

Xehn reacted faster he thought possible with his back hurt like that, and within no time he had it powered up, heated and operative.

"Ghanek, protect her!!", Xehn yelled back at him and took steady paces towards the now angered, bodiless creature.

The younger Lekgolo grabbed Kate's arm gently and pulled her behind his shield.

The creature had multiplied its limbs up to fifteen, and was well aware of every living being around it, it had perfect aim and it was very agile for its size. It wasn't anything Covenant, but it didn't seem anything Flood either.

Xehn narrowed his eyes and growled under his breath as he took aim to the base of the largest limb and fired, a medium sized blast burning away the skin, flesh and tissue of the arm.

A pained but distant roar sounded, and another arm shot forwards in its place.

The Behemoth had noticed in time the shooting of the limbs wasn't going to work, and decided it was time to try a more powerful blast to get rid of all tentacles at the same time.

As he dodged the first two limbs thrown at him, the third hit him square in the chest, denting the armour beneath and pushing cracked metal through synthetic jumpsuit.

Xehn winced as he felt warm blood running down the cracks in the armour.

He dared not to give up and kept going, jamming the gun and overloading it by setting a different heat convulsion.

As the weapon finally started to sputter he grinned to himself and took a wild guess as to where the creature itself was hiding. He sent the weapon flying a good far distance until he couldn't see it anymore.

The creature hadn't noticed Xehn's idea and was still dead-set on crushing the nuisance.

The long limbs retreated and suddenly were ready to strike again, wrapping themselves around Xehn and gripping onto him tightly.

Xehn cried out, feeling the shattered armour pierce his skin, "Blow… up… already!", he stuttered as he fought the ever tightening grip of the creature. He almost startled as more limbs snaked their way around his arms and legs, slowly crushing more armour and joints beneath.

All he could hear was Kate's desperate cries.

The explosion was much larger than Xehn had expected, and with his last power he stared in the direction of the blast, smiling at the fact he had thrown it clean into a weapon storage.

The tentacles shuddered before they lost their grip on him, but still it seemed to take forever before he hit the ground. The blow came hard and it whipped up enough dust to cloud his vision.

In the dark he struggled to pry off the torn off limbs, still twitching, with a broken and heavily bleeding body.

His breathing was ragged and difficult, he coughed and tried to stand up.

But his broken ankles and knees wouldn't support his weight anymore and he collapsed back onto the ground. The sound slowly dimmed out as he could hear Ghanek and Kate argue and finally heard her footsteps get louder.

He climbed to his knees and reached out his hand to her growing silhouette.

For the first time he felt tears run down his neck, as her arms enclosed themselves around his broad shoulders.

She was crying, he could faintly hear her sob and felt her body jerking as she tried to push him upright.

"Fight it Xehn, fight!!", Kate screamed as she tried in all her might to keep the crying, broken Lekgolo upright, but his weight was to heavy for her to bear and as he fell forward it pushed her off her feet into the dirt.

"No!! Xehn, stand up!!", she screamed and pushed him again, "Think of Kahlanx, he would never forgive you! Think of your little brother Xehn, fight!!", she screamed again as Ghanek watched them from a safe distance, astounded.

As Kate noticed it was pointless to lift him entirely, she held his head upright and gently placed it on her lap, crying and stroking his neck softly.

"Don't you dare give up… Don't you dare leave Kahlanx and me behind… ", she spoke through her sobbing.

He was still breathing, but very difficult.

Ghanek walked closer to see the fallen Xehn and Kate in the darkest picture he could imagine, he had never seen a Lekgolo so strong broken this bad, it made him speechless.

Kate then stared at him, and he startled.

"Please… look for Chakuth… Please find him…", she pleaded him, "Chakuth is an Unggoy, he and his team shouldn't be far…", she added to it.

All Ghanek could do is nod slightly, he then turned and ran away, towards the centre of the once holy capital of High Charity.

* * *

**End Note: **OH MY GOD THE DRAMA!! And yes people, CLIFFHANGER. Three updates in one day is all you're getting for now )

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